


The Rabbit King

by starvingsnout



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, BLACKPINK (Band), EXID (Band), Red Velvet (K-pop Band), 花郞 | 화랑 | Hwarang (TV), 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Genre: Abusive Parents, Avatar Jungkook, Bottom Jeon Jungkook, Canon-Typical Violence, Earthbender Taehyung, F/F, F/M, M/M, Other Ships Not Mentioned in Tags, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-29
Updated: 2018-10-24
Packaged: 2018-12-21 01:08:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 22,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11933169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starvingsnout/pseuds/starvingsnout
Summary: A young king barred from the throne by his mother, Jeongguk must find his own path to power, while Taehyung, the grandson of the richest noble in the nation, seeks to run from it. As their lives intertwine with each other's and those of their peers in the ranks of the Hwarang - an elite group of young warriors - a clash between goals, clans and generations looms inevitable.A Hwarang (TV) x Avatar: The Last Airbender mash up that very loosely follows the plot of the Hwarang TV show.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'd like to think the reader won't need to be familiar with either Hwarang or ATLA to read this, but I could be wrong. Hit me up if something's confusing. 
> 
> This is (obviously) not a historically accurate story, even beyond the elemental magic. The TV show wasn't either and as I did research I realised I wouldn't be able to do much better: not much is known of early Silla as there are no written contemporary sources. Thus, many aspects of the culture depicted here are either anachronistic, much too advanced for the time period, or completely made up by me - believe nothing you read!
> 
> Chapter specific notes at the end.

  
"We shall select the most beautiful of the young men and women, the blooming flowers of the nation's youth, and teach them _hwarangdo_ , the Way of the Hwarang: morality, martial prowess, how to enjoy arts. We shall train them to be great men and women of Silla, protectors of the realm and the royal family.

By the Grace of the Gods and Avatar Hyeokgeose, Queen Seonok"

 

* * *

 

"As expected, the council has unanimously decided against sending their sons and daughters to me under the terms dictated, Master Wee Hwa. Even the firebender families have acquiesced to the will of the majority."

"Leave that to me, Your Majesty. I only need to snare a few to catch them all."

"You better act quickly. Lord Sosurim is on his way to deliver the list of improvements suggested by the council in person. I do not need to hear them to know what they are. He will not rest until he has flushed out my son into the open."

"The royal family can rest their faith in me, as always."

 

* * *

 

The sun had sunk right above the purple horizon as the delivery boy happened on Taehyung and Seokjin in front of their family home, about to head out for evening entertainment at Okta. The brothers huddled over the letter, tied with the familiar pale blue ribbon that always had their hearts racing, which consisted but of two lines: time and location.

"The Najeong at midnight?" Seokjin murmured after a stunned silence, his enthusiasm for the night ahead washed away in favour of shock and outrage. "Are they crazy? Whose idea is this? Why can't we play somewhere less... less sacrilegious!"

"If we get caught we'll be rolled naked in the streets!" Taehyung gaped into nothingness at the thought.

"Rolled in the streets? More like hanged and beheaded! This must have been the firebenders' idea. Those uppity brats practically consider themselves royalty and above the law."

"Not Minho. I like Minho."

Seokjin clucked his tongue but acknowledged the point. "Minho is decent. For a firebender."

"Are we going to participate?" Taehyung asked, flush with anxiety. A lot of blood had been spilled up in the hills and they were known to abound with ghosts.

"I won't give the little match sticks the pleasure of us backing down from a figh- match!" Seokjin declared, handsome face screwed up like a toddler's and not all that intimidating in Taehyung's modest opinion. "But we shall negotiate with the others at Okta first. Heeyeon at least should be there with Solji-noona."

Taehyung brightened at the thought of Solji's stern, round face and clear-headed views, which were usually also Seokjin's views except when it came to his fixation on inter-clan competition; Seokjin was only half a True Bone, and while he had landed on the "right" side of the family and inherited bending abilities from his and Taehyung's father, he was self-conscious about his inferior status and bitter about his lack of bending prowess, which he was convinced was due to his deceased peasant mother.

"And Jisoo," Seokjin added, his dark brooding frown replaced by a sly grin at his brother. "Her mother has been greedy for her company lately, but she is free tonight, I hear."

"Oh."

"Worry not, baby brother. Solji-noona and I will be there to chaperone you all night to ensure everything stays chaste and proper."

Taehyung allocated his brother's pompous words a withering smile and fell silent as they finally headed to the streets towards the tea house, the letter safely tucked inside the sleeve of Seokjin's jeogori. Jisoo and Taehyung's engagement had been announced in the spring, with barely a two weeks' warning to the young couple themselves, who had with some naïvety assumed the increasingly frequent visits of their mothers to each other's houses could be explained away with their shared love for calligraphy. Jisoo had been one of Taehyung's closest friends since he could walk, but the engagement had all but nailed shut the coffin of their friendship, to the point where they had exchanged nothing but a few practiced words of acknowledgment in the past six weeks, a far cry from their former impromptu, free-flowing conversations and endless inside jokes. His brother though, inexplicably, thought that it was the first sign of playmates turning to lovers, and Taehyung hadn't corrected him mostly because a part of him fervently wished it to be true so that on his wedding night he wouldn't be bedding a girl he considered his sister.

Inside Okta it was cool, the clever build of the house allowing air circulate in the most efficient of manners in its different sections. Solji and Heeyeon had reserved their usual room and sat opposite each other, drinking so called five fruit tea, or ogwacha, that had recently taken the capital by storm, made from walnut, ginkgo, jujube, chestnut and dried persimmon. Jisoo was nowhere to be seen.

"The Kims deign to show themselves," Solji commented as the brothers walked in and Heeyeon immediately patted the pillow next to hers, which Taehyung claimed with a pleased smile, which only grew when she leaned in to whisper Jisoo had had to attend to her mother, once again leaving early.

Heeyeon was moreso a friend of Seokjin's than Taehyung's, but as a veteran of marital affairs had turned into his closest confidante during the past few weeks. Despite her young age she had herself been engaged no less than three times, albeit to men of distant families she had never met before the agreements had already fallen through upon the prospective fiancés learning of her family history. Not only was mixed heritage a social taboo, but many nobles also quietly bought into folk beliefs of bad luck following half-and-halfs and anyone who associated with them, some going so far as speculating on her supposed defective nature that was bound to surface as madness or fits of rage sooner or later even though upon being prompted none could point to any indiscretions in Heeyeon's past or current behaviour. In fact, she had distinguished herself as a woman of exceptionally agreeable manners, capable of endearing herself even to the most skeptical of her critics.

"No time for idle chat," Seokjin said, still standing, and brandished forth the letter from his sleeve. Solji and Heeyeon stared at the words on it with surprise, but the cool-headed appeal to reason Taehyung had been hoping for never made it past Solji's lips as noises of a heated argument exploded downstairs, too loud for them to ignore.

"Why, you soggy- soggy- wench! Those were my favourite earrings!" a male voice shrieked.

"Minho, for gods' sake, out of the way, let me handle this," a harsh, impatient female voice followed.

"Yeah, let the ladies do the talking if that's the best insult you can muster." Another woman.

"You, Son Seungwan, a lady?" the first woman, whom Taehyung now recognized as Ahn Hyojin, laughed. "You, who dress like a peasant toddler? Did the stream wash away all your good clothes? I hear waterbender families wash their own laundry. Your own mother-"

"How dare you bring my mother into this? At least she doesn't live like a pampered lap dog in the palace, licking the soles of anyone who so much as looks her w-"

The entire building shuddered and the crowd gasped as something hit a support pillar with great force. Startled to action, Seokjin flung open the sliding door of their cabinet and stomped into the stairs, Heeyeon bouncing to her feet to follow right at his heels. Solji sipped her tea and raised an eyebrow at Taehyung. "Not going?"

"I don't feel like fighting. They're probably just going to scream in each other's faces until guards show up." The distinct sound of ceramic smashing to pieces pierced the air.

"Hwasa will put an end to it sooner than that," Solji said, nonplussed. "If those firebenders dare so much as light a single flame, she'll have their heads on stakes at the morning market. You might as well sit down and enjoy your tea."

Sure enough, after a few more moments of incoherent insults and wrecked ceramics the ruckus died down, as abruptly as it had begun, and Taehyung abandoned his tea in favour of creeping out of the room to survey the scene below. Hwasa, a travelling performer turned business-owner, had draped her famous curves across a _ta_ bed and played with a fan as she oversaw the troublemakers grudgingly cleaning after themselves. Taehyung skipped down the stairs to assist Seokjin in piecing together a flower pot: ever since he was little he'd had the unusual connection to earth beyond ordinary bending: he could make flowers bloom, revive plants from the brink of death and regrow their limbs. Under his caring hands the broken branches of the miniature magnolia tree grew back together, good as new, and the roots reburied themselves into the soil Seokjin had with great patience levitated into a new pot from where it had scattered across the floor.

Minho and Hyojin, a fierce firebender girl whose mother was said to have earned her high position at the court at the expense of her dignity, were inspecting the table she had flung at the pillar, presumably the old-fashioned way. Taehyung exchanged a quick smile with Minho but lowered his gaze with haste when Hyojin's head snapped in his direction; she was by and far the most aggressive firebender amidst her peers, never seen in public without her lips painted fiery red with high-quality rouge, imported to her personally from a Chinese alchemist famous in the craft, and quick to engage in battles of both wit and fists at the slightest provocation. Minho, mostly known as a flirt of epic proportions (was there a lady in the capital to not have either sighed or cursed his name? probably not), viewed the rivalry between the clans more as a sport than a blood feud and while he never failed to back Hyojin up in a fight he rarely instigated any and held back his insults if he was up against a woman, a fact that elicited conflicted reactions from the female population of the city but did little to hurt his popularity.

Seungwan and her fellow waterbender accomplices - the 'Mings' (Taemin, Jongin and Jimin, brothers in all but the literal sense) and young Yerim, whose face was drawn together with concentration as she tried her best to copy her elders - were stood in formation drying the floor soaked with spilled tea with such elegant movements one might have thought they were dancing. Stilling in admiration, Taehyung concluded for the millionth time that had he been given the choice of being born into any other clan, waterbenders would have been his go-to. Firebending seemed like a trauma conga-line of self-inflicted burn wounds for someone with his attention span and airbenders with their lofty ideals and scholastic ambitions intimidated him, but waterbending he could do. He loved all things water-related - swimming and bathing, rain, lying in puddles (mostly when he was younger and certainly never where Seokjin could catch him at it) - and the waterbending way of life seemed to involve all kinds of intriguing rituals not to mention an endless array of fascinating abilities, like creating bubbles for breathing underwater. Curiously enough, Taehyung had heard plantbending was in fact a technique classified under waterbending, although only known to the swamp peoples of the south.

"Earthbender."

"Firebender."

Taehyung blinked into attention to watch his brother square up the shoulders he admired on every reflective surface almost as much his face as Hyojin stepped into his space and leaned close to whisper, heavy golden earrings shaped like coiled dragons almost swinging into his face. "We were unfortunately interrupted just as things were getting good. Resume at midnight?"

"Of course. Wouldn't miss it." Seokjin flicked his hair in an apparent attempt of a counter attack but didn't quite manage it.

"Excellent."

As Hyojin turned away with one final sneer of disdain to approach the flock of waterbenders instead, Seokjin's cool stare crumpled into a disapproving frown and he turned to Heeyeon with fists dug into this sides. "So it was them! _The nerve_. Can you believe it?"

Heeyeon shook her head in outraged incredulity. "She totally thought we would chicken out, did you see the way she paused when we didn't?"

"Or maybe she was hoping you'd take the high road for once," Taehyung mumbled, unheard, calculating the odds he could still wiggle out of participating in the match but finding them stacked against him. If only Jisoo was here.

 

* * *

 

"My son, why do you still linger in the capital? Did I not ask you to leave three days ago and stop tempting fate? Why are you disrespecting your mother's wishes?"

"Why're you disrespecting mine? No, why are you disrespecting the wishes of your people? These past few days I have visited every corner of the city, every tea house, every shop, and everywhere the talk is the same. 'The prince is turning twenty, he's about to become a man, yet where is he?' They think there's something wrong with me, that I'm weak or a fool or both. Am I, mother, a weak fool in your eyes? Is that why you insist I remain hidden?"

" _The time isn't right._ Jinheung, my most precious, a time will come when I shall be proud to present you as my son and the king of this nation, but for now Silla is still too weak and the capital too full of enemies for me to risk the life of my only child-"

"Fourteen years have passed since my father's murder. If you have not solidified the status of Silla, let alone your own, by now, it would seem you're not doing a very good job. And as long as I am not king, I prefer to be called Jeongguk."

"Leave, _Jinheung_."

"You realise, mother, I could walk right out to the market place and prove my heritage with my bending?"

"Then why haven't you done that already? We both know why. No major family will take the risk of rallying behind you and even if they did they would only use you until you are of no use to them and kill you."

"The people might feel different. You're not exactly a popular ruler."

"Oh, Jinheung, it doesn't matter what the people think or want. The people are powerless. And the only power _you_ can have is on this throne and the only path there is through me. Don't defy me again. Leave Seorabeol."

 

* * *

 

Jeongguk stalked down the street shaking like a man in a fit of palsy, dizzy with euphoria from the conversation he had until now only dreamt of having with his mother. The bare surface of the dark sprawl of gangrenous thoughts and evil whispers that had been consuming his head and heart since his last hurried visit to the capital four years ago. Up until then he had lived his life without many thoughts on anything, content to do as his masters instructed, studying the classics with as much enthusiasm as he could muster (which wasn't very much), excelling in all things military from horse-back riding to archery and fencing, and mastering the elements with such speed his instructors had had to readjust his yearly curriculum over and over to include more advanced techniques. He'd never had actual friends bar from the peasant children of a nearby village he occasionally snuck out to play with, mimicking their speech patterns and accents as best he could to blend in to the extent that they bled into his essays, which never improved his already questionable grades. In an abstract kind of sense, he always knew he would one day be the king of Silla and that his peaceful isolation in the mountains would come to an end in favour of... something grand and courtly, but far away.

On that fateful visit to the capital on his fifteenth birthday, however, the cold fist of reality had punched him in the gut and changed his outlook on life forever. Specifically, he had been thus educated by a crumbled sheet of paper, half-trodden into the dusty ground in front of the palace gates, noticed and picked up by Jeongguk as by some twist of fate the saddle of his horse had come undone and taken him with it onto the hard ground where he sat sulking for a few precious moments as a servant re-tied it. It had been a series of humorous images, telling the story of idle, foolish, cowardly rabbit king "Jinban" on a never-ending grand tour across the countryside, taking up lodgings in the biggest house in every village and indulging in his favourite nightly pastimes of drinking and prostitutes while offering increasingly more ludicrous explanations for his seemingly unlimited wealth, which nevertheless aroused no suspicion because he was dim-witted, frail and ugly, and no one wanted to believe he could be their king. The story of Jeongguk.

That people might not welcome him claiming his place as king had never occurred to Jeongguk, not even in passing. His instructors often incentivized him to do better in his studies by referencing the expectations placed on him, but none had ever indicated that he was by general consensus considered unlikely to meet them and that the burden of proof was on him to show himself worthy, and yet that was the stark truth confirmed to him as he waved that soggy piece of paper under their noses. It was also then that he had found out, to his great surprise, that his mother was not popular in the slightest, among the nobles because she was a firebender and known to favour her clan, and among the common people because of her methodical efforts to build up the capital at the cost of all the other parts of Silla. She also rarely showed herself in public and had implemented several unusually harsh laws, including one making it a capital crime for a peasant to enter Seorabeol.

All this new knowledge had for many months stewed in Jeongguk's gut, circulated in his blood stream, head to heart, heart to limbs, limbs to head and back again, transforming him into someone new, someone older and sharper, someone who saw the world and his place in it in a harsher, clearer light. He practised new bending techniques with a single-minded fervour that left his instructors unnerved, bested his martial arts teachers more than often than not and demanded new ones be sent, and even dedicated a few hours of his day to his worst subject Chinese, a painstaking endeavour which nevertheless little by little paid itself off so that by his nineteenth birthday he could hold a conversation on any topic at an intermediary level. His trips down to the village gained a whole new purpose, as well, becoming an exercise in familiarizing himself with the peasant way of life, praised in all the classics as the most noble of all in its organic balance of natural processes and the elements they could live with in perfect harmony despite their inability to control them, but which, upon closer inspection, proved to revolve more to the tune of the field bailiff's booming commands and exorbitant demands than anything else.

Offering a variety of excuses in her customary bi-monthly letters, his mother had not summoned Jeongguk to Seorabeol since, and as the years passed his impatience and ambitions grew, a hunger no book or sparring session could satisfy thickening in his gut as ideas on what he could do to improve the glaring issues in governance that even he, tucked away in the mountains, far from where decisions were made, could attest to. As a king in hiding, unacknowledged by the queen regent, he was however completely powerless, an absolute non-entity. It was like his mother said: who would rally behind a 19-year-old prince of uncharted abilities? No one with pure intentions.

Eventually Jeongguk had, without much forethought, for the first time in his life ridden the 138 _ri_ distance between Geumjeongsan and the capital, a three-day journey in the rough terrain, accompanied only by his trusted bodyguard Pa-O, and entered the city at night without his mother knowing about it until morning. It was early in the sixth month, roughly half a year till his 20th birthday, and the queen had just announced the formation of Hwarang, a kind of elite military unit wrapped in the veneer of lofty ideals. She had not been happy to see her son. Strange how despite the physical distance between them for all these years Jeongguk could still read her waxen face, accustomed to concealing her feelings from the prying eyes of the court, and knew what she was thinking or intended to do, regardless of the words that dribbled off her silvery tongue.

Queen Seonok loved power and while she loved Jeongguk too she loved him above all as an extension of her power, which had never been meant to fall on her straight shoulders. Her late husband the murdered king had been engaged to his sister in his youth, as was customary, and had fallen in love with the beautiful daughter of an unremarkable provincial firebender family on a tour of the nation right before his coronation and marriage. As cunning as she was beautiful, the daughter had grabbed the unforeseen opportunity with both her tiny soft hands, impressing the king with both her physical charms as well as her wit to the point that on coronation day it had been her by the king's side while the sister was sent away to marry a distant relative in one of the southern towns where she had died only a few years later. Queen Seonok had sealed her connection to the throne by successfully giving birth to a son who started exhibiting bending powers in all the elements at the age of three, thus eliminating suspicions that her firebender heritage had tainted the royal bloodline.

Thirsty from his aimless walking, Jeongguk sat down at the outdoor courtyard of a small alehouse and ordered fruit wine, taking in his whereabouts. Seorabeol was always abuzz, but this evening more so than any of the others he had witnessed. A few moments of observation later he concluded it was due to the elaborate outfits of the many young noblemen and -women afoot; earthbenders in gold and shades of green, waterbenders in blue and white, airbenders in orange and saffron yellows, firebenders in black-accented red. Jeongguk himself had dressed in accordance with the last group, deeming it the most appropriate seeing as how he was technically half a firebender. Besides, he liked red.

A trio of young firebenders had gathered right by the courtyard and Jeongguk focused on deciphering their words from the rubble of all the other noises in the street, oddly exited to hear what people who would have been his peers had he grown up in the capital talked about.

"It can't be helped, Joohyun told me we should thank our lucky stars she wasn't reporting us!" a tall man with a bright, handsome face, an athletic build and a ridiculous amount of sparkly earrings exclaimed.

A striking woman with ruby red lips made an impatient noise and flicked the heavy mass of her untied, currant red hair over her shoulder with a practiced move. "You should have left her to me: she must be deathly afraid of being seen in your company too much lest her parents notice."

"What?" The man eyeballed her in evident confusion.

"Oh, never you mind. This is pathetic. All our friends are pathetic. Yoongi, that grubby bastard, didn't even have the decency to say no, he just closed a door in my face. Didn't slam it, but _clicked_ it shut as if I wasn't worth having a door slammed in my face!" The woman flicked her hair again, scanning the street with her piercing eyes. While her strong features - pointy chin and nose, fiery, piercing eyes and prominent mouth that looked ready to twist in both boisterous laughter and curses - may not have met the criteria of the female ideal in Seorabeol, she made for what might be called a regal, handsome woman, inevitably reminding Jeongguk of his mother, which wasn't strange considering they must have been of at least distant relations. Even the way she fixed her heavy, unblinking stare at Jeongguk was familiar.

Wait. Remembering his disguise, Jeongguk reached for the sword he had laid at his feet to make a hurried exit, but too late. The two firebenders entered the courtyard with the swiftness of two highly trained warriors and flanked him with smiles equal parts friendly and frightening, which then turned confused as they had a better look at Jeongguk's face.

"I'm sorry, I see we're kin and you look familiar, but I don't recognize you...?" the woman queried.

Jeongguk cursed his lack of forethought in preparing his cover persona, hoping the firebenders would follow protocol and not pry for specifics on his background. From what he remembered, there were sixteen firebender families in Seorabeol and the odds were these two were not informed in the detailed circumstances of them all, which gave Jeongguk a lot of leeway in concocting a passable backstory, but without having researched possible family connections he was also bound to blunder and expose himself. "That would be because I didn't grow up in the capital. Jeon Jeongguk."

Thankfully, the firebenders accepted the meager explanation without so much as blinking. "Good to make your acquaintance. Choi Minho, at your service." The man flashed a smile so luminous a young female passer-by gasped.

"Ahn Hyojin," the woman introduced herself in turn, and Jeongguk stood up to exchange proper greetings. Hyojin scrutinized his frame with near-uncomfortable interest. "Since you appear... idle, perhaps we could interest you in some athletics and socializing? I don't suppose you have stayed in the city long, you may have not made the acquaintance of many people yet."

"I haven't indeed," Jeongguk replied with caution, not missing the quick glance Minho threw at his companion. "And I am known to enjoy exerting myself."

"Then it's settled, you must join us in a bending match tonight, at midnight."

"A bending match against?"

"Other clans, of course." From his voice it was evident Minho had already classified him a country bumpkin. "Are you in?"

Jeongguk rubbed his lips together, salivating at the chance of finally participating in a proper bending match - there had never been enough nobles among his tutors for one to have been possible - but what was with the sketchiness these two emanated? "Are the matches usually at night?"

"No." Hyojin lowered her voice to explain, with stiff casualness, "We're playing at a somewhat unusual location tonight. It wasn't our idea, but we're not ones to back down from a challenge either. Don't worry, though, there's next to no chance of us getting caught."

"Getting caught - where?"

"The Najeong."

An incredulous huff of laughter escaped Jeongguk's lips, which then twisted into an impressed grin when the firebenders only kept staring at him. "Alright. The Najeong at midnight it is."

Minho and Hyojin exchanged glances like they couldn't believe their luck, then Minho slapped his hands together and gestured for waitstaff. "Brilliant. We shall celebrate with the finest wine this establishment has to offer."

 

* * *

 

The Najeong Well and the grand shrine built in its protection were located high at the foothills west of Namsan, which, true to its name ("South Mountain"), rose south of the capital. Seokjin, Heeyeon and Taehyung made the short ascent on foot: the trail was too dangerous for horses at night due to the uneven cut of the ancient stone steps, consecrated along with the shrine and thus barred from any restoration efforts. The twisting pines grew so close together barely any moonlight reached the path through the canopy and between the low visibility, his deathly fear of ghosts and general reluctance to partake in bending matches, Taehyung's mood rapidly nose-dived to a new, dramatic low.

As they finally reached even ground, stepping out of the trees into the open area around the shrine, the cloud-congested sky abruptly frayed, allowing for some moonlight, bringing the night alive with silhouettes and shifting shadows. They slipped inside through the east gate, usually reserved for the royal family, each muttering a quick prayer under their breaths, and after some fumbling around found their way to the main hall through which they reached the rear garden and the massive stone courtyard in the middle, some 150 _cheok_  in length and 100 _cheok_  in width, surrounded by staircase-like flower beds, square-shaped lotus ponds and forests of evergreen pine, pear trees and bamboo. Ironically, it was the perfect setting for a bending match, with an even playing field and an abundance of soil and water, although uprooting the garden was thankfully not necessary as the earthbenders had had the foresight to bring along ready-made rock discs.

The firebenders had arrived before them, heavy jewellery and the gold embroidery of their stiff scarlet hanboks glittering in the darkness in the light of the flaring little flames on their palms, Minho and Hyojin and a boy Taehyung didn't recognize a little ways behind them. He was stood with his feet wide apart and chin in a cocky angle but arms tucked snug and protective against the body, a thick fringe obscuring most of his face; confident but indrawn.

"Who is that?" Taehyung whispered to his brother as they crossed the courtyard on quiet feet, in a triangle formation, Heeyeon at the front as she was the shortest.

"No idea. Looks like a typical firebender brat."

"Does not. He's cute."

Seokjin blinked at him in bafflement. "You can barely see his face."

"Well, what I can see of it is cute."

"You know," Seokjin began in his infamous ahjussi voice, "you're almost as bad as Minho the Maiden Slayer. I swear, if I have to witness your embarrassing methods of flirting with some firebender runt of all people-"

"What d'you mean embarrass-"

" _Boys_ ," Heeyeon cut off his affronted question with a giggled whisper over her shoulder and right in time, as the trio stepped into the light of the fires and within hearing distance of the firebenders.

"Waterbenders coming?" Seokjin asked by way of greeting, aiming for brusque but landing somewhere between petulant and peevish. The insidious mountain breeze had flushed his cheeks and lips a puffy red, rendering his pleasing features younger by a good few years, taking Taehyung back to the simpler times of childhood, when bending matches against their peers amounted to no more than bragging rights.

"So they said," Hyojin confirmed, equally curt. Her eyes glowered dark, almost black, in the meager light and not for the first time Taehyung thought he might have found her frightening had he not witnessed her gangly teenage years and that time she had only worn black and never combed her hair because it was "useless".

A silence fell as the six of them stood unmoving in an awkward circle, avoiding eye contact except for Taehyung who took the opportunity to inspect mystery boy's shoulder-length hair, the top layers tied back with a simple ribbon rather than into a knot on top - an unusual choice for a nobleman, until Seokjin could no longer bear the silence and addressed Taehyung's thoughts. "So, who's the kid? Had to resort to cradle-robbing to round up the team, did you?"

The 'kid' swiveled his head to fix Seokjin with a glare and from the restless way he adjusted his stance before speaking Taehyung deduced it wasn't in the boy's nature to stand so still. "I'm a few months short of full age, actually."

"A kid, in other words," Seokjin repeated. "Have a name?"

"Jeon Jeongguk," the boy announced like he expected Seokjin's forehead to hit the ground upon hearing it, shrugging his fringe out of his eyes, not unlike a colt. Taehyung _swooned_.

"Kim Seokjin. Please meet my younger brother Kim Taehyung and our family friend Ahn Heeyeon," Seokjin smoothly introduced his entourage and they exhanged swift bows.

"You must not be from the capital?" Heeyeon asked, bent slightly forward and squeezing her hands against her chest as she spoke, as if she was addressing someone ten years her junior.

Jeongguk eyed her quickly until averting his eyes, nodding stiffly.

"So, where are you from?" Taehyung butted into the conversation, before he was overshadowed by Heeyeon's charms.

"Uh, Ch- Geochilsan-gun," the firebender stuttered, immediately frowning at his own answer. "But I've been away, in China."

Taehyung nodded eagerly. "I'm so jealous. My grandfather barely lets me out of Seorabeol."

"That's because he's gotten lost every single time he's left. Once we searched for him for three days when he went missing on a hunting trip and found him chasing chickens with peasant children on the wrong side of the Baekje border," Seokjin explained, never one to pass an opportunity to lament the many (honestly, mostly perceived) shortcomings of his brother, and gained a borderline sympathetic look from Hyojin, who was known to be protective over her own younger siblings.

"Alright, enough fraternizing with the enemy," Minho, who had followed the exchange with a small smile, interjected with obvious reluctance. "The waterbenders are here."

Three figures in flowing blue silk - Seungwan, flanked by Jimin and Taemin - had entered the courtyard and advanced swiftly through the darkness. Taemin was the oldest of the three, but hung about behind Seungwan emanating disinterest. While the waterbenders exchanged greetings and complimentary insults with the others, Taehyung stepped aside, away from the sphere of the flames, checked with his fingers that his fringe was still in place, and rounded on Jeongguk, whose eyes narrowed down on him with evident suspicion.

"I like your hair style, is it popular in China? Here it's mostly peasants who don't have top-knots." A solid opening, Taehyung congratulated himself, never quite knowing himself what might come out of his mouth, especially in front of such an interesting face: a little pouty and a lot mischievous, like he might appreciate Taehyung's sense of humour.

Jeongguk's response was slow and came after he had both shifted weight from one foot to the other and wetted his lips. "It's just how I like it."

Taehyung nodded eagerly. "I like it, too. Have you been in Seorabeol long? I could recommend you stylists."

"I guess. Looks like I might stay a while."

"I'd love to show you around. I mean, this is your first time here, right? Unless you have something planned. With your- new friends."

"Listen, if you're..." Jeongguk paused to consider his words. "If you're trying to get inside information on firebender affairs or something, I don't know anything about it. In fact, I could not care less about this clan rivalry thing you have going on."

Taehyung smiled brightly. "Me neither. To be honest, I don't think my brother or Seungwan-ssi or even Hyojin-ssi really does. But our parents...."

"They're making you fight each other?" Jeongguk frowned.

"Well," Taehyung considered it. "Not making. But the matches are sort of a big deal. It makes grandfather happy being able to face the other officials knowing his grandson beat their children that day, even if it was just a game. And I guess most parents don't really mind these freestyle matches, either."

"Your grandfather is in the Hwabaek council?"

"He is the head of the earthbenders and current leader of the Hwabaek," Taehyung answered after a pause, surprised at Jeongguk's sharp tone.

"The grandson of the highest official in Silla isn't interested in the rivalry between the clans."

Taehyung smiled with some awkwardness at the not-quite-a-question, keenly aware of how much his grandfather would disapprove of the conversation he was having. "I'm afraid I'm more interested in useless things like farming."

"Farming," Jeongguk repeated, like he thought Taehyung was joking.

"I seem to have a knack for it. I've invented a new rice seeding technique, but I can't find a way to do it without bending yet. I wish I could go into the villages and do it myself, but I think my grandfather would disown me. Maybe... I could do it in secret? I'll leave behind a token of some kind so they'll think it was their guardian spirit. I could even disguise myself, in case someone sees me."

Warming up to the idea, Taehyung flared his arms behind his back to mimic the hypnotic movements of the crane dance, deeming it appropriate for an otherworldly being, and looked to Jeongguk for his reaction, but the firebender appeared to be at a loss for words, staring at Taehyung with a blank face that might have been anything from alarm to distaste.

"Taehyung, come on, we have to plan out our strategy."

Seokjin was tugging Taehyung's sleeve and Hyojin was making impatient gestures towards Jeongguk while the waterbenders already stood huddled together, whispering furiously, and so, with great reluctance, Taehyung bade who he thought was his new friend goodbye and joined his brother and Heeyeon, who immediately seized his arm, eyes wide and expectant. "Well?"

"Ahh, I'm not sure if he liked me?" Taehyung admitted. "He didn't say much."

Heeyeon sighed in disappointment. It was Taehyung's running theory that she was in love with love, which explained both her fervent fawning over other people's love lives and her lack of interest in romance for herself beyond her endless crushes on pretty women. "Maybe you came on a little too strong too early," she said with a sincere face.

"Yeah, maybe you shouldn't have tried to woo him with a literal mating dance," Seokjin pointed out dryly before Taehyung could assert that he hadn't actually said anything strange. "Could be he's more impressed by prowess in battle. Which is why I'm doing you a favour and assigning you to targeting him. And Jimin. You cool with that?"

"I guess," Taehyung mumbled. He and Jimin were the same age and had played together often as children, building gigantic sand castles by road sides, made all the more exciting as the learned to combine their respective bending abilities to create the perfect mixture of sand and water. It seemed like an eternity ago.

"Good. Then I'll take Hyojin and Seungwan, Heeyeon will handle Minho and Taemin. I suggest you tackle the newbie first, Tae, see what he's got."

"We're using the discs, right?" Heeyeon asked, eyeing the dark garden around them with apprehension.

"Well, yes? Unless you were planning on using sacred soil?" Seokjin widened his eyes pointedly at her.

Taehyung chewed on his lower lip. "But isn't just us fighting here enough to invite the wrath of the... inhabitants?"

Seokjin spread his arms in frustration. "Why are you guys being so difficult? This is our clan's honour that's on the line."

"But we can't really even brag about it or anything." Taehyung crossed his arms, tempted to throw a tantrum now that Heeyeon seemed likely to take his side.

"Everyone's waiting for us, you can't pull out now." Seokjin's voice had taken on a rare pleading tone and Taehyung exchanged indecisive looks with Heeyeon until she sighed and started tying the loose section of her hair out of the way with a piece of ribbon.

  
Once all nine of them had positioned themselves in three corners of the courtyard, they waited in total darkness until the last murmured negotiations died out. When Minho snapped a spark out of his fingers to signal the start of the match Taehyung immediately ran to the left towards the firebenders, as agreed, crouched low, clutching a rock disc in each hand. The night was still, but the sound of his own excited breathing prevented him from hearing anything and the darkness was near impenetrable, the moon again shrouded in thick clouds.

Noises of a scuffle somewhere to Taehyung's right attracted his attention before he made it far and he stilled, stilling in indecision. A heartbeat later a blinding ball of fire the size of a fist hurled towards him and only his legs instinctively slackening underneath him saved him from grievous injury to his face. He lay flat against the stones, cheek stinging where the bone had collided with the pavement, every muscle rigid in anticipation of a follow-up, feeling for his pouch with urgent fingers but finding only the burned remains of the leather string it had been attached to. Somehow it hadn't occurred to any of them before, but it was very much occurring to Taehyung now that bending in the dark was dangerous business, some of their usual unspoken rules rendered impossible to follow especially with the only healers at hand were Jimin and Seungwan, still novices in the art.

The scrape of soft leather on stone only six or seven _cheok_  away prompted Taehyung into rolling about the courtyard, hands flailing every which way in search of his pouch but soon giving up in favour of a new strategy, rooting himself in place to forcefully tear out age-worn slabs of stone with both hands and hurl them into the direction of the assailant, who grunted in surprise. Taehyung had no time to congratulate himself on his instincts, however, as one of the slabs came flying back an instant later, whizzing past his shoulder and then, impossibly, swinging back in the air to slam him in the lower back. What was going on? Had he somehow targeted a team mate? Why would they be targeting him back? Yet another drawback to the darkness.

"Hyung?" he asked, as it had been a male voice grunting in the darkness, but there was no answer, verbal or otherwise. In fact, it was deathly quiet in their section of the courtyard and the silence crept up on him like something living and tangible, prompting him to quickly abandon his position and seek out human company, opponent or not.

Slowly zigzagging across the courtyard into the opposite direction, whatever that was at this point, Taehyung attempted to take in the faces of everyone within a sphere of light, realising now how silly it had been to assign them specific opponents since telling anyone apart was near impossible. Changing strategy, he decided to instead target any and all firebenders since they had the disadvantage of sticking out with their flames, but a body collided with his before he could follow his plan, sending them rolling with force. Taehyung landed on top and from the pitiful groaning recognized the body underneath him as that of Jimin, soaking wet and reeking of old willows and mud.

"I don't understand, I lost control of my snake," Jimin moaned, holding his head. "How could that happen? It hasn't happened since I was eleven."

Alerted by some extrasensory perception attuned to the smallest of earth's vibrations, Taehyung pushed himself off and on his back and banged a fist on the stonework, hard, creating a narrow fissure, which he released towards the presence he had detected. A breathless grunt followed by sounds of someone stumbling to the ground told him he had hit his target, who was revealed as Jeongguk by the subsequent mis-aimed lash of fire that stretched into the sky as he fell, piercing the air with an angry hiss and lighting up most of the courtyard.

Taehyung wasted no time scrambling to his feet, Jimin doing the same next to him, quickly noting a dishevelled Seungwan sitting in the grass on her knees, cheering aggressively for Taemin, whose water tentacles Heeyeon was shielding off with a slab of rock, as well as Seokjin in the opposite direction, facing both Hyojin and Minho, which made no sense because... who exactly was creating all those little fires popping up in the darkness of the garden? Had the firebenders brought a full squadron to bolster them into an unfair victory?

Jeongguk, who had bounced back up with the agility of a hare, dismissed the blazing ring of fire he'd been powering up with an abrupt flick of his wrist and stood with his arms by his sides, stiff as a board, staring into the darkness, prompting Taehyung to turn around. He blanched in shock when he came face to face with the distinct dark purple garb and iron-plate armour of the palace guards and then let his chin fall on his chest in numb fear while the sounds of battle gradually died out, replaced by a deathly silence until the very last of the brawlers tuned in to the turn of events. They had been caught.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, this fic lives. It's been a while, more than a year in fact. Lots of shitty things happened in my life, but things are better now. I aim to get the bulk of this fic done by Christmas, we'll see how that goes.

Jeongguk had lost track of time but estimated it couldn't have been more than a few hours since the nine of them had been marched down to the city prison, made to remove their belongings and outer garments, and tied to poles in the prison courtyard with iron chains thick as a man's wrist. The commander of the guard had left and his dozen or so subordinates stood unmoving, deaf to the threats, demands and pleas thrown at them by the prisoners, mostly Hyojin and Minho, who had been the last to surrender on the mountain as well. Eventually, however, even the last of them had fallen silent, some dozing off, others speculating on the situation in low voices. That they had been lured into a trap seemed evident, but while they all agreed on the identity of the perpetrator - who else but the queen would benefit from the offspring of major families in a such a compromising position and would not hesitate to stoop so low to achieve it - the objectives of the plot elicited debate.

"Clearly she doesn't want us actually dead since _those two_  are here," Seungwan, the small, pale waterbender girl who had almost taken Jeongguk out with her ice bullets surmised, and no one had to ask which duo she was alluding to.

"Who's to say they aren't in on the plot, though?" quipped Heeyeon, the tall, athletic earthbender girl, from first row.

Hyojin gave a weary sigh on Jeongguk's left. Her braids had come undone at some point, leaving her thick henna-tinged hair hanging down the sides of her head like a mane, slightly matted. " _We_ are not in on the plot. How would her majesty even justify Minho and I conveniently keeping our heads while yours rolled?"

"A snake like her will find a way," Seokjin, the tall, classically handsome earthbender, declared with commendable vigour. Jeongguk wished he'd had a chance to better observe the man's bending skills in the match since, as the highest-ranking earthbender of his generation, he might prove a valuable ally (or a dangerous foe) for Jeongguk. His younger brother, Taehyung, had appeared sincere in his lack of interest in politics, but Seokjin's hostile attitude towards the firebenders suggested the siblings did not share this view.

"It doesn't really matter what you all think," Minho said, loud and confident. His pole was to Jeongguk's right in the back row. "Sooner or later your parents will swallow their prides and agree to whatever the queen is after, and we can all go back to our lives."

"Actually..." Seokjin started slowly and then raised his voice to ascertain everyone heard him. "Actually, I don't think we will. I can't believe I didn't realise it before. This must be about the Hwarang!"

Jeongguk cheered in his head. Upon being captured, he had made the snap decision to not reveal himself or indeed invite any kind of attention on himself unless strictly necessary, which included keeping his insights into his mother's plans to himself. From his point of view her intentions were clear as day - it had, after all, been two weeks since the Hwarang had been announced and none of the major families had sent their offspring for the sign-up. Was it not a topic of conversation amidst the youths of Seorabeol?

"The queen wants everyone important to join it, right? And I don't know about you guys, but our grandfather isn't about to give his stamp of approval for something like that without some serious strong-arming," Seokjin continued.

Everyone paused to consider the theory.

"True or not, I still feel like we're not getting out of here alive," Jimin, the waterbender whose water snake Jeongguk had turned against him, then spoke up plaintively. "Not only were we fighting at the Najeong, we practically destroyed that courtyard and some of the ponds. I think I may even have killed a sacred koi. It hit me in the face and I instinctively hit it back."

"The spirit of Hyeokgeose must have been angry at you for disturbing his sacred waters, Jimin-ah," the other male waterbender, tall and willowy, said a little too seriously to mean it. Jeongguk thought his name was Jaemin or maybe Taemin.

"Just at me?" Jimin laughed feebly.

"Actually, I think my bending counterfired, too," mumbled Taehyung, startling everyone with his gravelly voice. His pole was in the front row, and Jeongguk had assumed from his boneless form that the young earthbender had fallen asleep.

Seokjin tutted. "It's backfired, Tae, backfired. And it doesn't really matter whether the spirit world was upset because we're about to be executed by the living. Hell, she's probably willing to sacrifice Minho and Hyojin too, if it comes to that. It's not like they're her children or anything."

Jeongguk bit his lip. Engulfed again by indecision, he pondered exactly how long he was willing to keep up his charade should the nobles truly prove stubborn enough to let their children rot to death and what would happen if he spoke up. Would the guards even believe him? There was something darkly appealing about the thought of his mother finding out she had accidentally doomed the son she so closely guarded to death, but ultimately Jeongguk had no desire to die. He would find a way out of this, preferably without blowing his cover.

"My mother will never allow that," Hyojin muttered, defiant. "She is the queen's most trusted advisor, her majesty wouldn't do that to her."

No one bothered answering her, and a brooding silence fell over the courtyard, broken only by the guards' occasional exchanges, and Jeongguk allowed his thoughts dissolve into the hazy clouds of dreamland, more thankful than ever for his ability to sleep in any position, anywhere.

 

Morning broke hot and humid - bearable at sunrise, scorching as the sun ascended into a cloudless sky, heralding in yet another muggy day before monsoon rains, which were predicted to arrive within the week. Those predictions were of little comfort to the young men and women languishing in the heat without so much as a sip of water since their arrival and nothing to shield them from the sun or the insects apart from hair, but whipping one's head around in an effort to shoo away the ever-persistent horseflies had quickly proved more trouble than it was worth for anyone who had attempted it. By afternoon morale among the imprisoned had plummeted to such lows that Seungwan had stooped to begging the guards for a swift death by the sword, and Jeongguk himself had been overtaken by doubts on his previous assessment on the situation, wondering if perhaps the queen intended to have them die of thirst or that the officials had proven more cold-blooded than expected; after all, none here (except for himself) was an only child.

"Hey!" Seokjin piped up suddenly with a reedy voice, like he had abruptly aged sixty years, not raising his head from the limp mock bow it was suspended in, which made him heave up and down as he spoke to force the words out. "We should- we should do acrostic poems to pass the time. I love acrostic poems."

The thick blanket of heat and lethargic horseflies reacted with damp indifference.

"Alright, I'll start! With hwarangdo. Hwa! Hwarang is where the beautiful children of Silla have been invited. Rang!" Seokjin looked to his left where his brother was murmuring deliriously, head hanging low. "Rang!" Seokjin tried again, now to his right where Heeyeon expressed her feelings towards contributing to the poem with a feeble grunt.

"Alright. Then how abouuut I tell a joke? I've come up with some _great_ new ones. Okay, here's one. Ah." Seokjin stifled a chortle, which had his head bobbing up and down independently from the rest of his body. "What did the grape do when he got stepped on?" He paused and failed to swallow down some more chortles, or maybe he was just choking. "He let out a little _w-wine_!"

Had Jeongguk's innards not been liquified to the bone, he might have afforded the earthbender a disgusted chuckle; but as it was, he settled on closing his eyes and focusing on not throwing up the little fluids left in his body.

"Seriously, nothing? Alright, you can't not laugh at this one. What do you call a cow with a twitch? Beef jerky!"

Despite the chorus of pained groans a handful of people did in fact laugh, Jimin the loudest and highkey hysterical. Jeongguk reflected on the futility of first impressions: he had pegged Seokjin as the mature, princely backbone of the new generation earthbenders, not... whatever this was.

"Do you think this is a laughing matter?"

The laughter fizzled out with a feeble frenzy of hick ups and dry coughs as a new figure, a stout man with a shrewd face and slightly bent back, stepped into the courtyard, arms behind his back as if on a pleasant evening stroll except for the heavy leather whip coiled in his hand.

"Water," Taehyung gasped, breaking the surprised silence.

The old man approached him with the unhurried steps of a man in complete control of the situation, prompting Jeongguk's sluggish brain to wonder who exactly he could be, seeing as he was dressed in the finest silk robes and cap of a high-ranking official but in the neutral colours of purple and silver, usually reserved to the members of the court. "Kim Taehyung. Grandson and heir of Minister Kim Sosurim, current chairman of the council of officials and richest person in Silla after her majesty. Talented bender, but easily distracted. Attentive student, terrible academic record. Skilled rider."

The earthbender paid no attention to his words, again croaking, "Water. Please."

"You heard him," the old man said to the guards with a rueful smile. "Give these children some refreshments and we can get down to business."

Two of his subordinates appeared, holding a barrel filled to the brim with water between them, and before the prisoners knew what was happening had bucketfuls of it tossed in their faces, the quickest on the draw catching what they could in their mouths, while the old man sat down behind the writing desk that also been brought out to the courtyard, flicking open a heavy scroll scribbled full of text.

"I am Master Wi Hwa, the Chief of Hwarang, and here to tell you some great news. Her majesty has, after negotiations with your parents, found a way for you to atone your sin of desecrating the holy birth place of Avatar Hyeokgeose: You will join Hwarang where you will serve Silla and the royal family until your debt is paid. Or you will die."

"Well, sign me the fuck up," a voice piped up immediately. "I wanted to join anyway."

Wi Hwa squinted at the speaker in the last row and hummed in approval. "Choi Minho. Son of Choi Yeji and Ban Sogam, renowned martial artists and benders, loyal supporters of her majesty. Seems to be following in his parents' footsteps, academic failings and incessant courtship of young ladies not withstanding."

Minho huffed. "Yes, yes, that's me. Now can I get out of here?"

"And me," Hyojin spoke up in the first row sounding almost like her usual blunt, borderline hostile self. "Ahn Hyojin, daughter of Ahn Dain, Keeper of the Royal Seal, and I don't care to hear an assessment of my background or virtues from you." Her defiant words were somewhat dampened by the pained coughs that followed.

"Very well, very well, not much needs to be said about your mother." The chief's wry expression remained intact as he signalled for the guards to untie the two firebenders, who had to be supported so as not to fall on their knees on the dusty ground, grunting and groaning as they cradled their abused arms and midriffs with their hands. "Come now, is this truly the level of endurance the finest noble children of Silla are capable of? I see I have my work cut out for me."

Jeongguk held his breath until the bedraggled duo had finished signing the pledge and limped out of the courtyard muttering curses under their breaths, thankful they hadn't thought to prompt their "fellow firebender" to follow their lead; it was much preferable he wait until he could talk to Master Wi Hwa alone.

"Did- did my grandfather really agree to this?" Taehyung queried with his velvety voice loaded with doubt and hope as an expectant silence once again settled in.

"I haven't spoken to any of the officials in person," Wi Hwa answered, non-committal, inspecting him with keen eyes.

"Then... I can't possibly sign the pledge. It is my duty to uphold my grandfather's views," the young earthbender vowed with such a small, desolate voice that Jeongguk's chest panged in sympathy. From their brief talk it seemed probable Taehyung was not filling the shoes of an heir in the manner hoped for, to say the least. Jeongguk had liked him, though.

A mild "I'm sorry to hear that," was all the chief had to offer in consolation and, as no one seemed to have anything to add, he soon seemed to all but forget about them in favour of his documents.

   
An hour or perhaps three passed in semi-peaceful quiet, Seungwan banging her head against her pole in arhythmic patterns, presumably steeling herself to endure the heat just a little longer, Seokjin and Heeyeon murmuring a phrase or there to each other, Master Wi Hwa bent over his desk so low odds were he was napping. Jeongguk occupied himself with catching the obnoxious horse fly buzzing in slow, tireless circles around his pole, teeth bared in preparation, steeling himself for the taste.

"Oh, this is ridiculous!" Seokjin exploded when the Master's forehead finally pressed against the parchment. "I'm not about to let my baby brother die if I can help it, family decorum be damned. Untie him, and Heeyeon too. They're joining the Hwarang."

"What about you, I'm not joining without you, hyung," Taehyung hurried to assert, raising his head so fast his neck cracked loudly in protest.

The chief took in his bearings, bleary eyes sweeping over the prisoners as if surprised to see them still there. "Ah. Good. Kim Seokjin, half-brother of Taehyung, yes? Well liked, confident, responsible," he recited pleasantly with the slightest of slurs, "Your mother was a peasant, but you came out a bender, I hear."

"Yes."

"Hmh. I have personally never taken to slavish deference to the bone rank system. Thus, if it was up to me.... But it's not. I'm afraid you may not join. I am authorized to release you, however, since your fate is tied to your brother's."

"I would say thank you, but seeing as how you kept us tied up at the mercy of the elements for more than a full day, I can't say I'm feeling too grateful." The earthbender barely paused to check for his own injuries before already hovering over his brother as they were untied and lowered to the ground.

"But, what about me and... my background," Heeyeon asked as she was released, stepping forward with a slight stumble that had both the brothers grasping her by the elbows, but she pushed them off, standing tall. There was a feverish gleen to her forehead.

Master Wi Hwa chewed on the tip of a brush, unreadable as he inspected her. "A bender and of pure heritage. Those are the only criteria for Hwarang. For now."

The three earthbenders exited immediately upon signing, huddled into each other. Almost the moment they had left the waterbenders finally yielded, albeit after considerable resistance from Seungwan, the oldest of the waterbenders (confirmed as Taemin) having to practically order her to give up on her pride after Wi Hwa goaded her with the rudest description of the financial state of her family. While Seungwan took a moment to unload a final outburst of rage against the chief, Jimin turned away and then approached Jeongguk with an abashed smile and a limping step, attractive even with his hair plastered down the sides of his leonine face.

"Hey, you're not going to do anything stupid, are you? It's not my business, but this doesn't seem like something worth dying for. Your friends didn't seem to think so, either."

"I only just met them, their decisions have nothing to do with mine," Jeongguk mumbled.

Jimin nodded. "Right. Just wondering why you weren't among the first to leave. I mean, what have you got against joining the Hwarang?"

"Nothing." Jeongguk paused, digging his brain for a believable answer. "It's just that I want to be the last to sign. It's... a pride thing."

"Ah." Jimin lingered, slicking back his sweat-soaked hair and grimacing as he wiped his hand off on his clothes. "You know you uh- This may not be the best time to bring it up, but you seriously outplayed me, up on the peak. I haven't lost control of my bending like that since I was a child. What did you even do? Actually wait, never mind." He let out a feeble laugh. "I've been fuming about it all day, you know, when I wasn't distracted by thoughts of impending death by thirst that is, but... you know, I didn't remember you being so cute. I don't think I really care so much anymore."

Jeongguk stared at him awkwardly.

The waterbender grinned. "Right. I suppose we'll be meeting again soon in the Hwarang house, eh? I hope we get to talk more then, and maybe you can... teach me your trick." He starting walking away backwards as he spoke, smiling broadly even as he lost his balance upon colliding with a pole. Taemin gave him an unimpressed look as he returned to his friends.

The Hwarang house. Jeongguk pushed Jimin's weirdness out of his mind to considered the words. He had intended to wiggle his way out of the situation in some other way, by pushing himself into the avatar state if he had to, but - why not? Why not join the Hwarang? As long as his mother continued to deny him, what else had he to do here in the capital? She would be livid, of course, but once he was in, there would be little she could do to extricate him without drawing unwanted attention.

"And then there was one," Master Wi Hwa stated after the trio of waterbenders had departed, arranging his paperwork with an expression of deep satisfaction. "Will he join his comrades?"

"Yes, he will," Jeongguk answered promptly, eager to drag himself to a bath house now that he'd decided on a course of action. Faint black spots were swimming across his field of his vision, the two massive insect bites on his neck were throbbing, he reeked of sweat and had an urgent need to visit the privy. Master Wi Hwa's perpetual smirk dimmed, however, as Jeongguk came to stand before him.

"Who are you?"

"Jeon Jeongguk. Firebender." Jeongguk indicated his thin headband of red silk, with a victorious little smirk that had always driven his more uptight tutors mad.

Wi Hwa was not impressed. "You're no firebender I'm familiar with."

Jeongguk raised a palm and concentrated, allowing all his pains and fatigue melt into the background with a few practiced breaths, and lit a fire on it, fuelling it impatiently until the flames leapt in a frenzy of lines and curves, repulsive in the already oppressive heat. "Good enough?"

"I presume," Wi Hwa said at length, eyes trained on Jeongguk's palm, "you're from one of the provincial southern families, by that accent. Why are you in the capital?"

"Private family affair."

"And will your family be happy to hear you have joined the Hwarang?"

"No, I don't imagine they will be," Jeongguk said, chuckling even as his ribs ached from it. "But it can't be helped, can it? Like you said, it's Hwarang or death."

For a moment it seemed as though the chief might disagree, but then his wry smile re-appeared and he handed Jeongguk a brush. "Sign here, please."

 

* * *

 

At home, Taehyung and Seokjin soaked themselves in a drawn-out bath, defying their grandfather's orders to present themselves in his chambers without delay, the former reluctantly, knowing it was Seokjin who would suffer the consequences, but too worn out to protest. As they got dressed, however, Taehyung's throat slowly swelled in dread of having to defend themselves under the merciless eyes of his grandfather. Lord Sosurim had been a formidable warrior in his younger years and even his shrivelled up form, bent with age, held considerable strength; Taehyung's earliest sparring matches had been against his grandfather, and an eight inch scar still decorated his back where a sword had slashed him when he hadn't ducked fast enough. Silla's tumultuous years of internal strife and frequent bloodshed between the noble families, royalty included, might have been long gone, but creatures of the old world, creatures like Lord Sosurim, still rooled the roost and expected their children and grandchildren to follow their lead despite the fact that no noble under the age of fifty had ever seen large-scale battle, not with warriors of neighbouring kingdoms beyond the occasional border skirmish and certainly not with each other.

Over the years, as his coffers had filled with gold acquired as much through warfare as enterprise, Lord Sosurim had enlarged the family residence three times, the latest and largest undertaking including lavish living quarters originally intended for his son but since his death reserved for Taehyung's future family and servants. Since the announcement of Taehyung and Jisoo's engagement, the quarters had been buzzling with workers and artisans refurbishing the rooms with latest designs, as provided for by Jisoo's family. Even as Taehyung and Seokjin passed the Frozen Lake Pavilion, as Taehyung had bitterly baptised it, two men hobbled by into the building, an ornate chest between them.

Lord Sosurim received them at his personal numaru, a balcony-like extension of his lofty quarters standing on high posts, large windows open on all sides so a breeze could travel through. Taehyung and Seokjin were gestured to stand outside in the garden as the fading heat of the sinking sun burned their backs as a gleeful refrain of the day's hardships.

He regarded them as one might a lacklustre _talchum_ performance, eyes at half-mast, more interested in his _jogwa_ than their presence, but Taehyung knew better than to expect leniency. He fixated on the beautiful polish of the _numaru_ 's red pine floor, trying to remember the words Seokjin had advised him to employ, but realising with a heady woosh of panic that he could only recall useless fragments and the part in which he was supposed to blame Seokjin but had rejected as soon as it had been suggested.

"Grandson, tell me what happened today."

Taehyung snapped to attention, swallowing so abruptly he was forced to cough for several painful moments to clear his windpipe. "We- received a message, yesterday, in the evening. An invitation to a bending match at the Najeong. We thought it was firebenders, and we didn't los- didn't want to lose face, so we agreed to go. There were three from us, me and Seokjin-hyung and- someone else, three firebenders and three waterbenders. Almost as soon as we started soldiers appeared and we were arrested."

Lord Sosurim smacked his mouth, unreadable. "She played this well. Go on."

"We were tied to poles and after about a day told we would either have to sign up to the Hwarang or be executed. That the council had agreed to it." Taehyung hesitated, not sure how to recount the rest. How had Seokjin phrased it again?

"Who was the first to sign?" The words came out of his grandfather's mouth silky as a snake slithering through grass.

"The firebenders."

"And the second?" The snake coiled into a striking position, tasting the air with its tongue.

"Us."

During the endless, stifling silence that followed Taehyung's thoughts buzzed around like bees preparing their nest for an invasion by a colony of wasps.

"I hear Son Seungwan's companions had to beg her on their knees until she relented and agreed to leave. Why am I not hearing accounts like that about my grandson?"

There was nothing Taehyung could say: his grandfather would have no sympathy for either the discomfort they had endured or Taehyung's half-hearted protest and the subsequent, so very short-sighted readiness with which he had complied with Seokjin's orders.

"Whose idea was it to leave? Who spoke up first?" Lord Sosurim's papery voice had hardened as had his grip on the leather leash he carried with him at all times.

"It was me-"

"It was _me," Seokjin's steely voice drowned out Taehyung's whispered words. "I made the decision. Taehyung was delirious and could not protest."

Lord Sosurim rose, stiff but absolute in his authority, letting each word roll out like only someone who knew his every word was heeded to. "You're saying that while my son languished and crumbled, you half-breed servant's son, endured and kept your wits about you to override my son's willpower? Is that what he's saying, grandson?"

Taehyung risked a glance at his brother, which seemed to tip the scales as his grandfather made a tight noise at the back of his throat and raised an arm, eyes falling into slits in concentration. "Since it seems the peasant stock is of such formidable constitution, I would imagine you'll have no trouble enduring some more discomfort in the interest of educating your master."

The red clay earth around Seokjin rumbled and turned smooth, almost liquid, giving way under his feet, sucking him inside with such speed Taehyung had no time to react until his brother was already buried in the ground neck deep, an impressive display of a master-level earthbending technique. "Your lesson for the day: Get him out, by yourself. If your brother or anyone else helps, I will be notified." Lord Sosurim paused to see the effect of his words on his grandson and heaved his entire body in a sigh laden with disappointment upon not seeing what he wanted. "I'm afraid your your father's influence, as brief as it was, was enough to imprint a permanent stain of weakness in you. My son had no discipline to ensure you would grow obedient and strong, and the sow isn't much better."

They were words Taehyung had heard in endless variations since his father's deaths when he was six, but as always, they stung. Stung more than when he had been literally whipped in the face, when he was much younger and hadn't yet accepted that he had no choice but to remain quiet and unresponsive because any sign of protest would only fuel his grandfather's rage. His mother had tended to the wounds and held him close as he cried, but in her quiet demeanour and reproachful gaze Taehyung had read what she wanted to say loud and clear: "I told you so."

Lord Sosurim observed his grandson for a few more unbearable heartbeats until finally turning his back and retreating inside the house, muttering, "The girl better be of stronger stock. Her parents assure me she is, but in truth there simply weren't that many options..." A servant hurried to slide the door shut after him.

"No biggies. I just spent a night and day having my chest cavity compressed into a string bean, what's another half an hour more?" Seokjin chuckled with mock cheer. 

Stifling a sob, Taehyung slumped down on his knees and threw his arms around his brother's head, wheezing air in and out through his nose until he knew for certain he could speak without angry tears clogging his voice. "I hate him so much. Why can't he just drop dead already?"

Seokjin made a noise of disapproval, nodding to the servants as best he could in Taehyung's hold.

"I don't care who hears," Taehyung hiccuped.

"Come on, brother. We need to get me out of here and it might take a while. Your grandfather isn't wrong about you needing to practice on your techniques."

 

* * *

 

The official Hwarang inauguration ceremony took place a week after the ordeal at the Najeong, drawing a great crowd of spectators to witness sixty young men and women vow fealty to the queen in the central courtyard of the palatial compound, the only section ever accessible to the general public and only during major festivals or to welcome high-status foreign envoys. For the occasion the courtyard was decorated with silk banners and streamers of royal purple and silver, clan colours conspicuously absent, stretching across the courtyard from roof top to roof top in a loose imitation of a ceiling but ineffective in protecting those present from the heat, which seemed to have materialized into an oppressive entity of its own, like a heavy blanket you couldn't kick off.

Apart from the inconvenient weather, it was a beautiful day of triumph for the queen: one by one every single major family from every clan, airbenders included, had succumbed to their fears of opposing factions or even their allies gaining access to new privileges and confirmed the enrollment of their offspring to the Hwarang; the sight of self-important stewards prancing in and out of the inn where Wi Hwa had temporarily taken up lodgings as Jeongguk's wall neighbour had become all but an everyday occurrence.

The ceremony was to start at noon, with the recruits strongly encouraged to arrive early, but Jeongguk slipped in through the gates only a moment before the doors slammed shut, pleased to find his spot in the last row, as befitted his "low" station. His accomplices, with whom he had been in little contact during the week, were mostly scattered in the first three rows, whilst the queen and the council of officials stood on a row of chairs on the wide landing at the top of the staircase leading up to the central main hall where rulers and officials had engaged in political and administrative affairs for three generations, her majesty resplendent in gold and purple in the middle, white-powdered face a smooth mask of impassive sovereignty from which she rarely departed even when accompanied only by those closest to her. Jeongguk had read accounts of the legendary devotion she had showed to his father, but in the light of his own encounters with her he would have been more inclined to believe she had thrusted the dagger through her husband's heart herself. 

The proceedings chugged along swiftly in the sweltering heat, with brief opening remarks from the queen and Lord Kim as the representative of the officials, followed by the recruits being called forth one by one to face the queen, recite the pledge of allegiance and accept their new sword from Master Wi Hwa. As everyone was now clad in their new purple-on-white Hwarang uniform and only called up with their names, Jeongguk couldn't place anyone in their respective clans apart from his partners-in-crime; it occurred to him now that perhaps he ought to have spent the week learning everyone's names and reputations instead of sampling foreign delicacies at the market stalls or watching bending teams practice for the upcoming season (it seemed that only 12- to 17-year-olds participated in the official league - a fact that made Jeongguk resentful of his childhood more than ever).

"Jeon Jeongguk!" rang in the courtyard.

With a stiff back and blank face, Jeongguk left his designated spot and, despite having previously decided against it, gazed right into his mother's fractionally widening eyes and tightening face as he walked up to the staircase, reluctantly impressed with the speed with which she regained control of her facial muscles, looking on serene and composed as Jeongguk raised his new sword with both hands, his words more a mocking pledge of defiance than that of loyalty.

"Hwarang, Jeongguk! I'll accept the name of Hwarang!"

Only three people remained after him, and a final short speech from the queen completed the ceremony, simple and formal but sparse with courtly flourishes, championing for the glorious future of a Silla stronger than its neighbours in both military might and the arts. The new members of the Hwarang answered in unison with the oath each subject of Silla was taught the moment they learned to speak, "To the earth, I pledge my flesh. To the water, I pledge my blood. To the wind, I pledge my voice. To the fire, I pledge my will. To unified Silla, to her founder avatar Hyeokgeose, to his descendant King Jinheung, I pledge my life and belongings; to the spirits my soul."

Jeongguk mouthed along the words half-heartedly, curious of how many of his peers truly meant the words or if they had given it any thought at all. If they had given _the Hwarang_ any thought at all. His mother had her own intentions, but the hearts of the young could easily be wrestled from one cause to another, and what a formidable force they might form should they be able to overcome their clan-fostered enmities and bond as brothers-and-sisters-in-arms. Well, according to Pa-O anyway. It was an alien concept for Jeongguk, as someone far removed from his peers all his life, and looking at the solemn, confident faces of those that would one day serve him as his ministers and advisors around him he wondered if he had been hasty in his decision to join the Hwarang. What if he failed in gaining their respect, or worse, embarrassed himself? Would that not corrode the foundation of his rule before he ever sat on the throne?

The Hwarang exited the courtyard in a solemn procession led by Master Wi Hwa, the crowd cheering until the very last of them had disappeared from sight through the eastern gate. From there they marched onwards around the East Hall, where the queen had her offices and through a splendid garden full of trees in full bloom, all the way to the Hwarang House at the southern "tip" of the crescent-shaped compound, the former garrison for the queen's personal guard, who had since been allotted accommodations closer to the queen's quarters. Two long, one-story buildings, painted the same bright red as the rest of the palatial buildings but with grey roof tiles instead of the blue celadon of the grander halls, dominated the premises, with a quaint little courtyard in between.  
  
Sixty wooden work benches stood in a neat formation, a row of six wine cups of stout plain pottery on each. Growing excited at the sight, the Hwarang quickly claimed desks for themselves, waiting with as much as patience as they could muster for whatever their new master had to say, Jeongguk trailing in last, reminding himself that the man was his mother's creature and all his minions ought to be treated with suspicion.

"Welcome to your new home. Your studies won't begin officially until tomorrow, but I'm giving you your first assignment today. That building behind your backs is where you'll be sleeping from now on, in groups of four. It is up to you to choose who your roommates will be... with two rules. All four of you have to be of the same gender and from different clans." A ripple of affronted gasps and disclaims spread amidst them even as Wi Hwa continued talking. "A schedule for the week will be posted at the dormitory after dusk, by then I'll expect you to have made your choices. But first, let us drink. To the Hwarang!" Wi Hwa toasted and downed his own, solitary cup.

Realising the master had no intention of entertaining complaints, the Hwarang repeated the words in unison and followed his example, some of their former cheer renewed at the prospect of alcohol, but the gaiety proved short-lived. A moment later they erupted into a cacophony of violent coughing, Jeongguk spilling most of his drink down the front of his uniform, a girl next to him holding her throat with both hands. "Are we being poisoned?" she gasped.

" _Poisoned?_ It's a treasured family recipe." Wi Hwa raised his cup again, which he hadn't refilled, his smile smugger than ever. "Let us do another one. To the royal family!"

Looking at each other's ruddy faces, daring their friends to protest aloud, the Hwarang reached for their second cups with tangible reluctance and downed it with similar results to the first time, except for Jeongguk, who made a split-second decision and covertly dipped a finger in the cup as he raised it, concentrating his _chi_ on the alcohol until it evaporated before ever touching his lips.

"To Love!" a male voice among the Hwarang shouted to raucuous cheers, marking another cup, which Jeongguk once again bended away.

"Fuck love, here's to money!" shouted a female voice and the cheers rang even louder. Up ahead Jeongguk spied Taehyung on his knees, making valiant but futile attempts to grasp a cup, only succeeding in knocking them all over. Hyojin was one of the few still standing, but judging by her swaying shoulders not for long. Cups four and five finally bowled her over, leaving her slack body dangling over her bench in the most undignified of positions, joining most of her peers, some of whom had gone full horizontal and were either giggling in hysterics or groaning as if in acute pain.

Wi Hwa stood up, surveying the scene with satisfaction. "Now then, please mingle freely and find room mates that please you. Be done by dusk, don't leave the premises. See you tomorrow."

It seemed for a while as if the master's words had gone to deaf ears, but eventually a voice somewhere towards the front announced with the quivering timber of a martyr, "Since I absolutely have to room with a firebender, I'm claiming Minho, just so you all know."

"Aww, I knew you loved me, real-"

Minho's words were drowned by the sounds of intense vomiting, and suddenly the courtyard was full of noise and movement, people clambering drunkenly over the benches and each other towards whoever they considered the 'least disagreeable' options of those present. Fights inevitably broke out when a person proved popular, and Jeongguk was starting to see why Master Wi Hwa had gone to the trouble of getting them all sloshed: bending while intoxicated was impossible and as their new swords had been collected for safekeeping until tomorrow at the gate, they had no means to hurt each other apart from their limp fists.

As for Jeongguk, he shifted from one foot to another, evaded a determined-looking Seungwan tugging a fox-faced girl behind her by the wrist, and wondered if maybe getting blastered and joining the mayhem would have been preferable to hovering over his bench, awkward and self-conscious, seeing as how everyone else was going for people they knew and the only people Jeongguk knew were unlikely to want to room with someone of such "inferior" status. Eventually he decided on a tactical retreat to the sidelines under the shade of one of the small zelkova trees where he could wait until a final set of three for him to join emerged, no matter how long it took. Before he could move, however, a hand grabbed his.

"Hey, Jong- Jeongguk. Wait, I feel sick." It was a bleary-eyed Jimin, grabbing Jeongguk's wrist with both hands now, head drooping on Jeongguk's shoulder. "D'you wanna room together?" he mumbled after a few shuddering breaths through his nose.

"Uh-"

But Jeongguk wasn't given the time to answer as his other wrist found a taker as well, this familiar face seeming to have crawled all the way from his spot in front to the back judging by the condition of his uniform. "No, you should room with me," Taehyung wheezed piteously, a picture of misery with his expressive eyes watery and blood-shot.

Jimin peered down at him with a wrinkled nose, almost losing his balance in his efforts. "I was here first."

"Well, I _knew_ him first," Taehyung countered, pulling himself up on his knees with the help of Jeongguk's jeogori to glare at Jimin under his thick fringe.

"Aren't you from different clans? We can be in the same room," Jeongguk pointed out, taken aback but flattered at his popularity.

"I'm not rooming with him," Jimin said immediately, like a toddler.

"Well, I don't wanna room with you either." Despite his words Taehyung looked almost offended, face drawing tight.

"So back off and find someone else!"

" _You_ back off." Taehyung fumbled for an errant wine cup and threw it weakly at Jimin; so weakly he reached for it again for another try, but Jimin tackled or rather collapsed on him in an attempt to deter him in his efforts. From there the scuffle rapidly escalated into a full-blown attempt at a wrestling match, the pair swapping limp punches and slurred insults referencing people and events Jeongguk wasn't familiar with but found entertaining regardless. 

"Are those your roommates?"

Jeongguk turned to see the man that had approached from behind: tall, tan, flat face and keen eyes - intimidating if not for his warm voice and friendly smile. "Seems like it," he confirmed upon registering the words.

"Any chance the three of you need an airbender to round things up?"

"Oh, I- think we do, actually."

"Brilliant. I'm Kim Namjoon. Airbender, obviously. Twenty-three."

"Jeon Jeongguk, firebender. Almost twenty."

"Nice to meet you, Jeongguk-ssi of almost full age." Namjoon beamed at him. "So, uh. Why are they fighting?"

"I don't know," Jeongguk said. "The usual stuff, I guess. There's an awful lot of pointless fighting going on in this city, to be honest."

"Huh." They watched in a comfortable silence as Jimin rubbed dirt in Taehyung's hair only to be wrestled back on the ground so the other could spank him like a toddler. "You don't know them, then?"

Jeongguk sniffed, unhappy but more prepared for an interrogation now than he had been a week ago. "I wasn't raised in the capital."

"Interesting, me neither," Namjoon said, perking up. "Where were you raised then?"

"Ah, in China, mostly."

Namjoon's face brightened even more. "Me too. In Jiankang, I presume?" And then he said something long and complicated in Chinese out of which Jeongguk only caught the words 'emperor' and 'poetry'.

_Shit._

"I don't really care for poetry," Jeongguk hazarded in his very best Chinese, deadpan even as his gut roiled in panic. "I was there to trade- in trade." Fuck, he wasn't sure which one was correct, and only Hyeokgose knew how off his accent must be. Deeming the likelihood of running into someone with first-hand knowledge of Geochilsan-gun and its families high, Jeongguk had impulsively injected China into his backstory during the introductions at the Najeong, and here he was already, cursing his incompetency once again. "Not at the court, though, my family is too... low." Low, low-status, same thing, right?

Namjoon blinked, inscrutable, and switched back to Korean with a smile a smidgeon too polite. "Ah, I see. Your Chinese is- interesting, I suppose you must have been dealing with foreign traders a lot?"

"Yes, that's right." Jeongguk nodded firmly, racking his brain for everything he'd ever been told about Jiankang. Huge population, commercial centre, sits in the Yangtze River basin... "I didn't really learn to speak Chinese as fluently as I should have since I was mostly preoccupied at the docks."

"Oh, yes? Very commendable. There is certainly much room for growth in our trade with the Chinese. As well as the Japanese. It is pitiful how thoroughly overlooked we are in favour of Baekje in both directions, but no wonder: we currently have little to offer to anyone."

Feeling the sting of Namjoon's unexpected candour despite having little to do with the current state of Silla, Jeongguk found himself on the defensive. "I don't see how we are any worse off than Baekje or Goguryeo. We have just as much gold and our warriors fight just as well. We're just smaller."

Namjoon raised his brows. "I did not expect such patriotism from a man who has lived abroad for so long. Although I suppose it's the same for me," he continued before Jeongguk could splutter his complex emotions on the matter into an answer. "Everything I worked for in Jiankang, every connection I made, was with Silla in mind. I can only hope it wasn't all in vain."

His somber words intrigued Jeongguk, but Taehyung and Jimin had finally tired themselves out and separated from each other to instead compete over introducing themselves to Namjoon. As most of the other Hwarang members seemed to have already broken off into loose groupings of four, they grudgingly agreed to share living quarters with each other, and so the four of them headed to the dorms to claim a room for themselves and perhaps have a bit of a lie down to stave off the worst effects of the abomination of a "treasured family recipe". As they walked, Namjoon recited:

"In a valley of russet jujubes, are the chestnuts falling?  
And in the cut stubble of the rice field, are crabs already crawling?  
The wine is ripe and a sieve peddler passes by, how can I not drink?"

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) A couple of Korean words mentioned in relation to Lord Sosurim. Talchum = mask dance drama with stock characters. Jogwa = literally "crafted fruit", basically confectionery.
> 
> 2) On China. During the time setting of this fic, China was actually fractured into separate dynasties. Jiankang (modern Nanjing) was the capital of the Liang Dynasty, the largest of the Chinese dynasties in 539. It comprised a large area in East and South China.
> 
> 3) The poem Namjoon is quoting is a folk poem I took from the book A Study of Korean Folk Narratives (1971) by Chang Doksun. It mentioned crabs so I couldn't resist.


	3. Chapter 3

  
Taehyung woke up in a strange bed, on an unwieldy mattress, with a whirring head. With some effort, he sat up and gazed about the unfamiliar room, noting the sparse decor of mostly mud-coloured wood, the rays of the setting sun pushing through the rice paper panelling of the exterior wall, and the unmoving body on the bottom level of the bunk bed across from his. It was deathly quiet and the floor boards creaked pleasantly as Taehyung felt around it with his toes – someone had removed his boots and placed them side by side by the door – and rose, tottering towards his unconscious companion like a new-born deer.

"Should've known," he sighed upon finding out the identity of the body, his voice craggy like an old man's. Jimin looked peaceful, smiling in his sleep even as his face glistened with dirt-infested sweat. Touching his own face, Taehyung realised he was probably in equally terrible shape and scanned the room for a pitcher of water, but the servants were either slacking or had yet to assume their positions at the Hwarang House, as he saw none. Annoyed, Taehyung headed towards the door, hesitated, and returned to stand by Jimin's bed, admitting to himself in the quiet of his own mind that he was in fact not entirely opposed to the idea of rekindling their friendship.

"Jimin." Taehyung tapped the sleeping figure on the shoulder, insistently, until he saw movement in Jimin's face. "Get up. We should go and find out what's happening. And where the latrine is. Not to mention our luggage."

"Where is this?" Jimin asked, cracking open a single bleary eye to squint it in Taehyung's general direction.

"The dorm. I think we came here together, can't really remember? Must have been hours ago."

Jimin rolled on his stomach and made gagging sounds as he pushed himself up on his knees, somehow graceful even when reeling with a hungover and tangled in his jeogori. "So we're roommates?" he asked, tucking errant strands of his fringe under the Hwarang headband with his stubby fingers, which sparked a flurry of childhood memories in Taehyung, mostly images of chubby-cheeked Jimin at the cusp of puberty, obsessively re-arranging his hair in front of any and every reflective surface.

"I guess. With Jeongguk-ssi and that airbender. Kim something." Every word feel like he had to drag it through mud for it come out, all lumpy and awkward. "Should we- I mean, we should find the latrine." He teetered back and forth towards the door on the balls of his feet in a clumsy invitation.

"Oh yeah. There doesn't seem to be any refreshments here, have you seen a servant?" Jimin stretched his limbs with unnecessary gusto, only meeting Taehyung's eyes in a fleeting sweep across the room.

"No. I haven't."

While Jimin climbed out of the bed and adjusted his clothing, Taehyung slipped into the hallway, leaving behind the boots, which had already chafed sores on his ankles only after a few hours' use, exacerbated by the sweltering heat. He couldn't see anyone, but heard faint noises of conversation behind the other dozen or so doors lining up the hallway. Jimin followed him shortly and together they wandered through the unfamiliar building until they found the exit and the notice board on the wall next to it, drawn to the two large sheets of paper glued on it.

The first one was a crude blueprint of the dorm, depicting nothing but the bedrooms as rows of white blocks with enough space for names of the residents in each, although only ten out of the fifteen had been claimed so far. Taehyung found his group on the eastern side of the building, noting the unfamiliar airbender's name - Kim Namjoon. Heeyeon was rooming with Seungwan and Kang Seulgi, an athletic airbender Taehyung had always liked. To his amusement Jisoo had somehow landed in a room with Hyojin despite being just as scared of her as Taehyung, but his anticipatory grin at the thought of ribbing her about it faded as he remembered they hadn't spoken in weeks.

"This is ridiculous!" Jimin whined next to him, gesturing at the second sheet. "Meditation at dawn every morning. Lectures from daybreak to noon. Physical exercise from noon to sunset. A day off every two weeks. Is this for real?"

Taehyung eyed the detailed graph with uncomprehending eyes, realising in that moment he hadn't truly pondered on the level of commitment expected out of them, nor the exact content of their studies or who was going to teach them. Like most noble children, he had been schooled together with the other children of his clan in a single classroom for ten years, completing the standard curriculum in arts, sciences and humanities at the age of seventeen. Upon graduation, in a rare instance of willfulness, he had begged his grandfather to allow him to not pursue further studies in academia on the account that he had no aptitude for it, which had gone down about as well as was to be expected. Not only was his request denied, but he had been forced to watch as his tutors were whipped with bamboo canes for the crime of failing to teach their pupil adequately.

The incident had led to Seokjin proof-reading or downright ghost-writing a significant portion of Taehyung's assignments. He had thus "advanced" in his studies at a steady pace, with an estimated half a year left until he could take his final examinations – a prospect which filled Taehyung with trepidation and was best left to the dark recesses of his mind until he could avoid it no longer. Although if the Hwarang education would truly turn out as gruelling as the sheet purported, he could safely postpone succumbing to his fears quite a bit longer than anticipated: the schedule barely allowed for sleep never mind additional studies on the side. "It's pretty heavy on the physical, at least."

"Still not into the classics, then?" Jimin asked with a sly smile.

"It's not that I'm not into them, I just don't see why we have to read about what some Chinese man thought thousands of years ago. Anyway, as if you are."

Jimin only shrugged and smiled, evading his gaze, effectively shutting down the banter before it even began.

  
Having visited the latrine, Jimin and Taehyung crossed the courtyard, now clear of benches, in a near companionable silence and entered the largest building of the compound, lured by the intoxicating, smoaky sweet smell of grilled meat, stumbling into the communal dining hall where two dozen heads immediately whipped in their direction. Taehyung spotted Heeyeon and Jisoo with a handful of other earthbenders at a table close to the door, and a further scan of the room also revealed Jeongguk and the airbender, Namjoon, sat alone at the back away from the others.

"Are you-," Taehyung started, turning to Jimin, but the waterbender cleared his throat, hand rubbing the back of his neck, and shuffled over to where Seungwan was making impatient faces at him. Indecisive, Taehyung slipped into the kitchen and took his time flirting with the giggling _gungnyeo_ while they filled his tray to the brim with rice, meat and vegetables, and returned with a determined spring on his step, passing the earthbenders with a whispered 'sorry' and sat down next to Jeongguk.

"Way to make yourself an outcast," the firebender commented flatly, playing with his food.

"Hello to you too," Taehyung huffed, his eagerness to talk to Jeongguk deflating.

"Your friends would be wrong to be cross with you," Namjoon the airbender said in a pleasant, confident voice that suited his smooth face. "Jeongguk and I came first and sat together, but everyone else seems bent on segregation. I'm Kim Namjoon, by the way, in case you don't remember."

"Nice to meet you, Namjoon-ssi. We saw your name in the chart, Jimin and me, I mean."

Namjoon glanced at the earthbenders' table where Heeyeon was still eyeing them with suspicion, no doubt already formulating what to report to Seokjin. "Are you sure you want to sit with us?"

"Oh, it's fine. That's Heeyeon-noona. She's just being overprotective since my brother isn't here. Why aren't you sitting with the airbenders?" Taehyung asked.

"As I told Jeongguk earlier, I don't really know them at all. Except Gayee, but he followed me from China. I haven't seen him since the toasts, but I trust him to fend for himself, and in all honestly I'm not too upset to get a few moments away from him."

"You've been to China, too?" Taehyung straightened in interest.

"I moved to Jiankang when I was twelve. I only returned a few months ago."

"Why?"

Namjoon grimaced. "Ugh, politics, I'll tell you about it some other time. Suffice it to say that many things are different in China."

"And your friend...?"

"He follows me wherever I go." Namjoon's grin was lop-sided. "The queen gave him special permission to join the Hwarang. Couldn't tell you what she was thinking. Gayee's family is far from influential."

"Jinyoung-ssi! Jinyoung-ssi, why didn't you wake me!"

"Right on time," Namjoon sighed as all heads turned to the source of the voice rising above everyone else's. A man with wide, innocuous eyes in a handsome face, stood by the earthbenders' table gripping Jisoo's older brother's stiffening shoulder.

"My head is pounding like crazy, ah, they really should have given us some decent mattresses, it must be a mistake of some sort. And I spilled wine on my uniform earlier so I stink! Why are you looking at me so coldly? Where's Minho-ssi? Minho-ssi! Minho-ssi! Min- There you are. You and Taemin-ssi should come sit with us, we need to talk about the schedule, I think there's been a mistake with that too, I did not leave China to get up at sunrise just to meditate." The men addressed stared at him like startled rabbits at their respective tables.

Namjoon raised his voice. "Gaga, come here-"

"Namjoon-ah!" the man perked up at his voice and abandoned Jinyoung in favour of beelining his way to the back. "Why didn't you say you were here? Is this your group?"

"Yes, most of them. Wang Gayee, Jeon Jeongguk, Kim Taehyung," Namjoon listed, indicating each in turn, and gestured for his friend to take the seat next to his.

"I really want to get to know my group better, though. They barely said anything last night." Gayee entwined Namjoon in a one-sided embrace.

"I wouldn't push it right now. It seems the situation is just as volatile as we've been told."

"Your group seems to be getting along fine," the Chinese man pointed out, shamelessly ogling at Jeongguk and Taehyung.

"I'm new to Seorabeol, I don't know anyone," Jeongguk shrugged. "And he's the town loonie."

It took a moment for Taehyung to realise Jeongguk was referring to him. "Excuse me? Who are you to call me that? You don't know anything about me. And I'm older than you by two years, maybe you should address me like it."

The firebender had stopped chewing, chopsticks in the air as his wide eyes flickered at Taehyung through his fringe. "I'm sorry, I-"

Taehyung pointedly turned away. "So, Gayee-ssi, why did you join the Hwarang? I guess you know that most of us didn't exactly volunteer to join it."

Gayee's face brightened. "It was because of _her_ , that is to say the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. Me and Namjoon attended a parade on the day after our arrival, for the king's birthday or something, and there she was, floating through people like a goddess. We were supposed to bow, but I couldn't take my eyes away from her and for just a moment our eyes met." He clutched his chest with utmost sincerity. "It was like an arrow pierced my heart and it has stayed there ever since. When I found out she was building the Hwarang, I knew it was my destiny to serve her."

"I'm sorry, are you talking about the _queen_?" Jeongguk spat out, gaping at him with disgust that seemed a little over-the-top to Taehyung, who considered the queen a rather handsome woman, if not a little cold.

Gayee leaned closer to the table to speak in hushed tones, oblivious to Jeongguk's tone: "I'm telling you, I have never encountered a woman like her. I was given an audience with her in her own private garden and talking to her face to face - !" He grasped his chest. "I almost fainted. Those fierce black eyes, the tiny frail hands that could roast me with the snap of her fingers, those tiny _feet_. I would let her stomp on my body if she want-"

Jeongguk raised a firm hand, eyes closed in a grimace. "Enough, please."

"Don't get too attached to the queen, Gayee," Namjoon joined the conversation, unperturbed. "You can't exactly marry her. Although joining the Hwarang isn't such a bad move for someone in want of a wife. Are you two matched?" He gestured at Taehyung and Jeongguk.

"I am," Taehyung answered, noting with reluctant interest that Jeongguk hesitated before also nodding.

"Lucky you," Gayee sighed. "I had a fiancée, back in my home town, but I had to write to her and break it off when I left to come here since I don't know if I can ever go back."

His voice grew somber and listless at the final words and Namjoon hurried to pitch in: "I intended to marry in China, as well, but the political situation turned too risky for a reputable family to accept an airbender into the family... Perhaps it's for the better, although my parents weren't particularly happy to start arranging a match for their 22-year-old son. But who here can honestly say they have never failed to live up to their filial duties, eh?"

Not one at their table, it seemed, as they continued their meal in silence after Namjoon's question. The airbender soon turned to another topic, the curriculum, which elicited lively reactions and speculation from the others. Taehyung participated only with short responses, sinking into dark thoughts. His grandfather's parting words to him the day before had been nothing short of ominous, reminding Taehyung to stay on alert for messages. Seokjin had said little, only hugging him long and hard, both an assurance that he would be fine and a request for Taehyung to stay safe. Jinyoung and Jisoo had arrived at the palace gates at the same time as him, but Taehyung had only managed small talk with the brother. Out of these three issues there wasn't much he could about the first two, but the third... "I'm done," he announced abruptly, rising from the table with his tray. "I uh- I need to talk to my friends for a bit. It was nice meeting you, Namjoon-ssi, Gayee-ssi, I'll see you in the dorm later. Bye." And none for Jeongguk!

 

Heeyeon and Jisoo appeared to have been waiting for him as they immediately stood with their own empty trays upon Taehyung approaching him and gestured for him to follow. They thanked the gungnyeo and slipped out, meandering out of the immediate Hwarang premises and falling into step by the southern palace wall under the shade of the large chestnut trees growing alongside it.

Buying Taehyung and Jisoo time, Heeyeon secured Taehyung's arm to herself, chatting with forced levity. "Hey, TaeTae, want to compare roommates? I'm stuck with Seungwan. I had Seulgi already snatched, she's really nice and quiet, and we were going for Yerim, that young waterbender, she can't be too bad, right? But turns out Seulgi and Seungwan are actually starcrossed lovers and just- gravitated towards each other, which is actually incredibly cute and I'm a little endeared now. And then we rounded things up with this one cute firebender girl, so actually it all worked out very nicely. You? You at least got your cutie, didn't you?"

"I definitely did not 'get' him. And Jimin's there," Taehyung huffed.

"But Jimin's not so bad," Jisoo pointed out on Heeyeon's other side, her voice even huskier than usual. Taehyung's chest immediately tightened with all the complex feelings that had tortured him since the engagement. "I mean, he doesn't hate you, does he?"

Taehyung bowed his head, clearing his throat as Heeyeon nudged him in the ribs. "No... But it's awkward. I don't know how to talk to him anymore, which sucks because I actually really miss him."

"I think he misses you too. And awkwardness can be overcome." Jisoo's voice trembled, and Taehyung's face almost split between a sniff and a smile. It dawned to him that what he'd been afraid of the most was that rather than the situation or her parents she had decided to resent _him._  Hate him even.

"Yeah, I think so too. But everything's different now, there's no-"

"Everything's the same, dummy!" Jisoo whisked her head around Heeyeon's taller form and their eyes met, the three of them coming to a halt. She was as beautiful as ever, but Taehyung still could not see anything in her a future wife. "And it's probably going to be the same forever and always. Which is pretty much the problem, I know, but... not talking to each other is probably not going to help. It's awkward enough around here as it is."

"Fine." Taehyung extended a pinkie towards her, and she grabbed it with hers while Heeyeon sighed in satisfaction.

"Wow, I make for a great mediator. Clearly I made the right choice to study at the Ministry of Justice."

"What? You didn't do anything," Jisoo and Taehyung said in unison.

"I brought you two together!" Heeyeon insisted. "This literally wouldn't have happened without me."

"Nah. I would have cornered Taehyungie soon enough," Jisoo decreed. "Have you even administered a single case at the Ministry, unnie?" While most of them had assigned work in various governmental bodies afforded to them as nobility, very few amongst them held positions with any weight or responsibilities; Taehyung for example "worked" in the Customs department of the Treasury, showing up for a couple hours a day to pretend he understood something about import duties and trade compliance.

"I have. Kind of. I have observed hundreds of proceedings and written countless papers on them- Don't laugh, brats! It's more than either of you have done at your jobs."

Taehyung and Jisoo were not to be deterred, however, giddily falling back into their double trouble act of teasing those closest to them, which went on long into the night as the three of them traipsed around the premises, pausing occasionally to chat with other clan members.

 

* * *

 

_BHWOANGGGGHHH~_

Taehyung bolted upright in his bed, ears ringing, blurry eyes drawing to the retreating back of a bulky man with a shaved head, now bending over the other bed, swinging his other arm back to-

_BHWOANGGGGHHH~_

Jimin sprung up like the beam of a trebuchet, wide-eyed, cradling his ears as the strange man rang what Taehyung now saw was a large, hand-held gong, over and over, until there was finally movement in the bed above Jimin's, right as Taehyung was about to go and slap the boy awake himself. Satisfied that all the occupants of the room were in acceptable states of consciousness, the bald man put down the gong and boomed, "Outside, now! Bring sheets and dirty laundry! Wear undergarments only!" Then he left to assault the senses of new victims next door, by the sounds of it.

"Lwanhtry?" Jimin repeated, staring at the door with swollen eyes while Namjoon climbed down the ladder of the bed with such clumsy movements the entire bed frame creaked and groaned. Taehyung recalled vague memories of returning to the room the previous evening, of Jimin and Jeongguk huddled over a _gonu_ board in the alcove between the beds and Namjoon engrossed with an edition of the twelfth chapter of The Art of War, the one detailing strategies for firebender battalions if Taehyung remembered correctly. He probably did not.

"Jeongguk-ssi, come on, let's not be the last ones to come out," the airbender prompted between yawns, shaking Jeongguk's shoulder with one of his long arms, and when it had little to no effect, gestured for Jimin to assist him, which the waterbender did with glee, climbing up the bed to dig his fingers into armpits and other vulnerable spots of the body. Wrinkling his nose, Taehyung turned his back to the ensuing wrestling scene to tug off his beddings and bundle them up together with the clothes he'd worn the day before, wafting off stale alcohol and dirt from when he'd rolled around with Jimin.

The door to the room slid open right as Taehyung was about to carry his load through it, revealing Jisoo in the same white tunic and loose silk baji as the men, silky hair in disarray on her shoulders. Jeongguk, having finally sat up, made a noise that could only be described as a squeak, pulling his loosened tunic tighter around his body with both hands, and Namjoon froze, jaw slackening in surprise.

Jisoo blinked, taking in the situation, and angled her face away, speaking to the frame of the door as she stifled her laughter. "Sorry! Tae, I was just going to check if you were up, um- see you outside?" With that, she hastily closed the door and a moment later loud giggling by what seemed like a batallion of girls could be heard on the other side.

"Who was that?" Namjoon demanded, still in awe.

"Jisoo, my best friend. I'll introduce you."

"Don't get his hopes up, Taehyung," Jimin said dryly, turning to Namjoon, "Jisoo is also his fiancée. And an earthbender."

"That's your fiancée? Damn. Jeongguk-ssi, is your girl that hot?"

"I don't know," the firebender shrugged, kicking off his sheets until they fell to the floor in a crumbled heap. "I've never met her."

"How come?" Taehyung found himself asking, promptly breaking his private decision to no longer engage Jeongguk and save himself from future embarrassment.

"Uh. I guess my parents never saw the need?"

"She's probably hideous. Or deformed. Or maybe not all there in the head," Namjoon speculated, oblivious to the appalled look Jimin threw at him. "On that note, I wonder how many of the female airbenders in the Hwarang are available. Technically I should have my parents doing inquiries, but there might not be time for that."

The airbender didn't let go of the subject of marriage even as they stepped into the hallway, ignoring his roommates' scorching looks of embarrassment. Outside in the courtyard, however, all conversation quickly tapered off at the sight of Master Wi Hwa, who had finally lost his smirk, regarding them with an impassive, almost cold expression, focusing on each and every one of their faces until even the last of them had fallen quiet. There was finally a hint of rain in the warmness of the morning, seeming to signal not only the end of the hot season but the end of lazy days, sleeping in and drifting around town, and spur of the moment trips up the mountainside or down to the oceanfront, not to mention unregulated bouts of bending, archery and melée. 

"Stand up straight!" Wi Hwa barked so suddenly Taehyung almost dropped his sheets, snapping to attention. "Good morning, Hwarang."

"Good morning, chief!" everyone roared as best they could with hoarse voices.

Wi Hwa took his time continuing, waiting until he was certain he held the attention of all those before him. "From this moment onwards you are soldiers of Silla, nothing more, nothing less. I don't care who your parents are. I don't care about your clan or your family's position in it. I don't care if under mommy and daddy's roof you had an army of servants to wipe your arse, here you have none." He paused until the wave of faint and not-so-faint gasps of outrage had subsided. "From now on you will do everything with your roommates. You will sleep together, eat together, shower together, do chores together. You'll be provided food and clothing, everything else you'll be responsible for yourselves. Is everyone following so far?"

"Yes, chief!"

Wi Hwa breathed in deep, eyes closed, smug smile etching back into place, with an additional, almost feral edge to it. "Good. I don't expect you to make the transition from your cozy civilian lives to that in the military easily. In fact, from the short time I have had to observe you and from what I have been told, I believe most of you will struggle severely. As soldiers it is your first and foremost duty to do as you're told. Infractions will result in punishments and you will only be afforded three warnings. Moreover, if you try to escape or betray your fellow comrades-in-arms, you will _all_ get a warning. Without further ado..." He gestured towards the bald, bulky man behind him, still holding the gong. "This is Ohbin, master-at-arms, and this," the master bowed slightly in the direction of a middle-aged woman in opulent mauve silk, standing primly to the side, "is Lady Yoonji. They'll be supervising you this morning. As for me, I'll see you at noon at your first official lecture."

As Wi Hwa left the courtyard, Lady Yoonji took his place, speaking with a clipped, startlingly gravelly voice, "Hwarang. Later today you shall be provided with chore lists that entail in detail what each room unit will be responsible for and when, but this morning we shall be working in two groups. Chop chop!" She accentuated her words by clapping her tiny palms harshly together when they failed to react fast enough, jolting them into shuffling round until they stood in two roughly even-sized groups. "Good. Those on the right shall be doing laundry, those on the left will work in the stables. Latter group, relinquish your loads to the former."

"Don't even give me that face," Jinyoung blustered as he unloaded his pile of laundry on top of his groaning sister's. "You're obviously in the winning group. We're going to be literally wading in shit."

Taehyung shuddered, noting that Jeongguk and Jimin had also landed in the laundry team, whereas Namjoon, Minho and Hyojin, among others, appeared to be joining Jinyoung in the stables.

"I thought the schedule said meditation at dawn. I didn't hallucinate that, did I?" Jisoo wondered out loud as they trailed after Lady Yoonji's diminutive figure out of the Hwarang premises towards the southeastern gate like a flock of ducklings for their first swim, prompting curious looks from the straw-hatted gardeners sharpening their pruning shears for the day.

"I don't even care, I'd rather do laundry than break my back shoveling manure," Heeyeon said, a spring in her step despite the early hour; Taehyung realised she had to be ecstatic to have gotten away from the oppressive atmosphere of her adoptive home, doubly so now that her brother had married and brought home his bride, none too fond of the beautiful young lady competing for her husband's attention, even if platonically.

"Excuse me, but I'm pretty sure washing laundry doesn't exactly spare your back, either, unnie," Jisoo pointed out. "I asked the sticks this morning and I'm certain it's going to rain today, so it's only going to get nastier towards mid-day."

"I hope you're wrong," Taehyung groaned even though she never was. Jisoo had the Gift.

They passed through the gate and turned left at the Woljeong Bridge, descending the stony river bank down to where the river bed spread out in an ankle-deep sheet over the fine sand, with rocks perfect for sitting strategically placed along the water's edge. The river was in fact one of the dozen shallow tributaries running through the city, known as the Muncheon, and barely warranted the sturdy bridges that connected the palace compound to the southern bank.

"You know, this isn't really bad at all," a spirited Seungwan, wispy hair collected into two knots on the top of her head, could be heard exclaiming to Jimin. "Waterbenders can just sit back and let bending do the work."

"No bending," Lady Yoonji decreed immediately, majestic from where she perched on a comfortable chaise under the shade of willow trees.

"And here I thought the army was all about efficiency," Seungwan muttered, but low enough that the _sanggung_ couldn't hear her. "It's still not so bad, though. I mean, it's only a day's worth of washing."

But just as she had finished speaking, a line of servants, arms weighed down with full baskets of laundry, appeared from around the bend, one after another, placing their burdens on the rocks in a row, fifteen in total, all stacked to the brim.

"Two people per basket?" Heeyeon suggested after a collective moment of horror let the magnitude of the task at hand sink in.

Taehyung and Jisoo grabbed one in unison, sharing a disbelieving look at the sheer weight of it even with their combined efforts, and half-carried, half-dragged it down the rocks and onto the sand where it sank deep into the river bed. Seungwan and Jimin reserved spots on their right and on their left Jeongguk single-handedly hauled one of the baskets down the rocks while Yoongi, a short firebender notorious for his grouchy personality and generally dismissive attitude, followed with lazy steps, for some reason dressed in a dark-patterned yukata instead of the nightwear provided. Apart from Seungwan none of the usual culprits in inciting inter-clan altercations were present, which meant Taehyung could more freely engage with whomever he wanted. Jisoo, a perfect reflection of his thoughts and preferences as usual and always ahead of the curve, was already bonding with one of her roommates, an airbender with soft features and rosy cheeks, tying her hair with ribbons. Park Chaeyoung, Taehyung recalled.

"What exactly do you do with these?" Jimin asked no one in particular, holding one of the wooden mallets in the baskets.

"You use them to beat the dirt off, of course," Seungwan sighed, rolling up her sleeves.

With the stony face of pure, unadulterated apathy, Jimin grabbed the corner of a sheet, holding it at shoulder-level, and gave it the limpest imaginable slap with the mallet.

Seungwan's lips pressed into a thin line. "Alright, listen up, everyone. I might as well show you how this works and I'm only showing it once, so pay attention." Her stern gaze dared anyone to allude to the reasons she out of all of them might be so knowledgeable on the subject, but it went unchallenged. "First of all, you need to thoroughly immerse the garment in water and let the current rinse off the worst of the dirt." She squatted on the sand with her feet in the water, knees wide apart, demonstrating her words with a pair of trousers, all traces of a lady's upbringing absent in her brisk movements. "You can rub and twist the fabric as you're doing this, but be careful if it's silk. Then," she picked up a bat, "you either beat it with the bat or if there are visible stains on it that won't go, scrub it with a brush."

One by one the thirty or so members of the laundry team followed her example with varying degrees of energy and soon a constant beating sound made all conversation near impossible, some eventually abandoning the bat in favour of slapping the wet garments against the sitting rocks as it produced less noise and could be done without straining one's back. As the sun floated higher and higher in the pale blue sky, the heat gradually intensified to the point where only a handful continued their efforts at even half their initial pace, stopping every few moments to chug lemon-flavoured water that had at least been graciously carried down the bank for them, some of the men baring their upper bodies to meet the changing conditions head on.

"I honestly - can't believe - this is my life - now," Jimin grunted next to him between lazy, petulant swings, seemingly oblivious to the fact he was currently holding what looked like a lady's undergarments. But then, Taehyung didn't remember Jimin ever holding much interest in women, which had led to a lot of amused head-shaking and speculation when his engagement to Kim Yerim - a popular girl some years his junior - had been announced. Poor girl will probably never be a mother by that man, they said with the self-serving pity of those who engage in gossip.

"At least the view is nice," Taehyung spoke up a few moments in delay and when Jimin raised an eyebrow in askance nodded towards Namjoon's Chinese friend, in a wide stance in the middle of the stream pouring water over his naked chest with a drinking chalice.

"Shameless," Jisoo said on Taehyung's other side, laughing. "Catching your attention yet, Chaeyoungie?"

The rosy-cheeked airbender giggled, exchanging little bows with Taehyung as their eyes met. "It's a wonder Lady Yoonji hasn't said anything yet," she side-stepped the question.

Taehyung squinted at the woman's still figure over his shoulder. "I think she might be sleeping, actually."

"She's not the only one," Seungwan joined the conversation in her brisk manner, eyes narrowed at the human-shaped lump behind Jeongguk, who sat with his back straight and legs spread, hard at work, barely having slowed down since he started, which meant he was all but done with his share.

"Is that Min Yoongi?" Taehyung asked just to make sure, not very familiar with the reticent firebender.

"Who else? He dumped all his laundry into the river, covered them with a basket, and hasn't done a single thing since. Something really ought to be done about that." Seungwan's heart-shaped face was dark.

"Wake Lady Yoonji?" Jimin suggested the obvious, but not with much enthusiasm.

"No point. Haven't you noticed? She's the carbon copy of him in female form. In fact I'm fairly certain she is his aunt."

Taehyung peered again at Lady Yoonji's sleeping face to confirm that yes, the pale round face and slit eyes did indeed bare a striking resemblance to Yoongi's.

"Don't you see what's happening here? Wi Hwa can froth and foam all he likes about the ranks and clans not having weight in the Hwarang, but it's all horseshit. He's not the one calling the shots, the queen is, and there's no chance in hell the firebenders aren't going to benefit. I heard Hyojin openly joking about sneaking off to see her lover in the palace, and are there going to be consequences even if she gets caught? Of course not!" Seungwan was herself all but frothing at the mouth now, the water around her ankles bubbling in rhythm with her angry words, and before anyone could stop her she had stood up and marched to Yoongi's curled up form, kicking him in the side with her bare foot.

"What the-," the firebender mumbled with a deep, scratchy voice, rolling on his back. Jeongguk had stood up as well, shoulders squared, watching them intently. To Taehyung he hadn't seemed too eager on intra-clan solidarity a week ago or even this morning, but perhaps the firebender had changed his views and wanted to get in the other firebenders' graces by showing support to one of their own.

"Had a good nap, did you?" Seungwan sneered in full battle-mode.

All signs of sleepiness evaporated off Yoongi's face, his expression turning guarded but calm as he rose from the ground, fixing his shirt with unhurried movements. "I did. Can I help with you something?"

"You can do your share of the work, for starters."

The firebender glanced at the overturned basket in the stream. "Looks like I have." He spoke in measured tones, but his words were daggers and his stance rigid, muscles coiled for action.

Taehyung changed looks with Jisoo and Heeyeon, who was wading towards them with Gayee in tow, and was more grateful than ever that Minho and Hyojin had landed in the other team. The wisest course of action was probably to stay out of any fights that ensued, but Wi Hwa had also said they would all be punished in case of infractions.

"Don't play with me, matchstick. You're standing in the middle of a river and it looks like my people outnumber yours."

"You would attack an innocent firebender, unprovoked, with dozens of witnesses? Somehow I expected more from your sort," Yoongi drawled, unperturbed.

"Unprovoked, my arse!" Seungwan snapped. "Either you do your share, or I'll make you do it."

If anything, this blatant threat seemed to give Yoongi more confidence; he eyed her with cool detachment-bordering-on-apathy, shoulders lax, hands slightly raised and finger splayed. Although rarely witnessed, Yoongi's lightning-fast precision strikes were the stuff of legends among the young nobles of the city and would present an interesting challenge for Seungwan's more erratic bending style. In fact, in Taehyung's opinion a front-row seat to a such a duel might just be worth the ensuing punishment.

All pretense at washing laundry ceasing by the river, they waited with bated breath as the tiny waterbender extended her arms with dramatic flourish, knees bent, and water started coiling around Yoongi's ankles. The firebender changed his footing, testing its hold, but despite Seungwan's obvious concentration the water level stayed where it was, straining against an invisible hold. "Jimin, is that you?" the waterbender barked, whipping around with a furious frown that together with her hair knots made her look like an owl.

"Sorry, unnie," a female voice answered and Taehyung realised Yerim had joined her fiancé and the two stood in an identical bending pose, side by side, evidently working in tandem to restrain their clan senior.

Seeing that no support was forthcoming from the other waterbenders present, Seungwan released her chi with an agitated scream and instead swung her leg back, kicking water into Yoongi's face with decent accuracy, following the move by lunging at the firebender despite losing to him five chon in height and who even knew how much in strength. Off guard, Yoongi caught her by the waist but the momentum was enough for them to fall back on the wet sand, Seungwan immediately climbing up his body in an apparent attempt to wrap her legs in a headlock around his neck, but she didn't make it that far. Jeongguk had moved behind her and lifted her off as if she weighed nothing, holding her with her arms locked against her sides even as she kicked back at his legs.

"I didn't ask for assistance, kid," Yoongi sighed as he stood up, ignoring Seungwan's litany of curses at him and every firebender in sight.

Jeongguk delivered Seungwan's kicking form to Jimin and Yerim, who secured her by the arms with fearful reluctance, and turned back to Yoongi. "Who says I'm assisting you? I think you should do the laundry, too. Before it runs away."

"It's not run-" the firebender started but fell silent as Jeongguk waded to the overturned basket and with the grace of a person confident in his physical prowess gave it a swinging kick, which sent it flying across the stream to the other side, untrapping the mound of laundry underneath. The current immediately started pulling the flimsiest piece of fabric downstream with an alarming pace.

Yoongi's mouth had opened in surprise and then began twitching in what might have been anger or amusement or both. "You cheeky fuck."

Jeongguk somehow looked both apologetic and smug. "I just don't think we should fight right now. And I really think you should do your share of the laundry, like everyone else."

The older firebender's twitching lips finally twisted into a dry smile. "Sure. I'll do the laundry." With the pace and demeanour of an imperious turtle he slogged after the runaways, shoulders hunched, muttering something under his breath.

The others stared at his back and then at Jeongguk, who was staring at the sky. "Although, I don't think he'll have time for that. Looks like it's about to rain."

It was true: without them noticing the skies had swollen with gigantic clouds of dark blue and purple, hanging low like a gigantic wet cloth of wool.

"Maybe we should-," someone started, but too late. The vault of heaven ruptured like it had been gutted and deluged them in a sheet of rain so thick Taehyung could barely see the faces of those standing next to him. The water was warm but refreshing enough on his sweat-greased skin and for a moment he merely stood there, listening to the frantic noises of people running about at the river and in the palace grounds, securing what needed to be secured from the way of the wet masses. Behind him, Jimin was talking with Yerim in low voices, in Taehyung's ears more like an older brother and baby sister than an engaged couple.

"Thank you for helping me, I'm not sure I could have held her by myself."

"No problem, oppa. I don't want to get punished, either. Do you think unnie was right, though? About the firebenders having it made in the Hwarang?"

"Yeah, probably. But it's also an opportunity for everyone else. My parents told me to get close to as many firebenders as possible and learn what I can of them, especially those from high-up families. I'm not-"

The conversation was cut off as someone requested the duo's help with carrying a basket and Taehyung was left to stand alone, suddenly overwhelmed and weary. Everywhere he looked there was someone with an agenda, out to benefit from the simplest of interactions. Namjoon and Gayee competing over who got to help Chaeyoung and another airbender girl carry their basket up the bank. Jimin manipulating the swelling river to retrieve wandering pieces of laundry only to be rewarded with suspicious glares from members of other clans. Yoongi holding Lady Yoonji by the crook of her arm to escort her back into the palace compound. Jeongguk... approaching Taehyung?

"Do you need help with your basket? I think your, um, fiancée is helping someone else."

Taehyung took in the firebender's soaked appearance, his round innocent eyes and defined shoulders exposed by the wet fabric, and nodded. "Sure." He only had so much willpower. 

They ambled up the bank as fast as they humanly could, losing their balance on the slippery rocks too many times to count before reaching the gate, and followed the others along the southern wall into a lofty storage building where Lady Yoonji was barking orders. Obediently, they climbed on creaky barrels almost their size and started hanging sheets on the rafters, working side by side, elbows knocking into each other.

"Hey, uh. Taehyung-ssi. I'm sorry for calling you the town loonie yesterday."

Jeongguk sounded so awkward Taehyung wanted to laugh. He hid his smile behind the long wet strands of his hair, straightening out a piece of linen with more than care than necessary. "Go on." The outpour drumming against the roofing prevented their words from spreading far.

"What do you mean 'go on'? I just wanted to apologize."

"Well it wasn't a very thorough apology. I thought maybe you'd like to say more." Taehyung kneeled gingerly to reach for another piece of bedding and rose just as gingerly.

Jeongguk paused. "Well, what do you want me to say? It was rude what I said and I'm sorry. I didn't really mean to suggest you're a crazy person or something, but I also didn't expect someone in your position to be like you."

Taehyung finished smoothing over the silk bed cover in front of him and turned to Jeongguk, who was already facing him, arms on his chest. His rain-soaked features were bare, delicate and handsome. An unexpected but attractive arrangement of oval and angular. "You and all of Seorabeol before you."

The firebender fidgeted. "Everyone seems to like you, though."

"I'll make sure that you do too," Taehyung grinned, a little flirty. Might as well test the waters. He wasn't at his finest, but all modesty aside, his face didn't really need much.

Jeongguk's eyes widened a fraction and he looked around as if in search for a valid distraction, but finding none. There were no more beddings to hang. "Yeah."

"Yeah, you'll like me?"

"I'll-" Jeongguk pursed his lips, clearly holding back a smile. "Shut up."

Taehyung's grin grew. "If you're going to be that rude to me, we might as well drop formalities. Call me hyung."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Gungnyeo = 'Palace women'. Basically any female servants at the palace with commoner parents. In this time period they were not an established institution with hierarchies or ranks etc.
> 
> 2) Wang Gayee is of course Jackson Wang. I'm using his Cantonese name here. Gaga is a nick name his friends and family use.
> 
> 3) Jinyoung is Park Jinyoung, also of GOT7 fame, who goes by Kim Jinyoung in this story since he's Jisoo's brother.
> 
> 4) Gonu = A traditional strategy board game for two. There are various versions, but basically you move around pebbles on a simple line grid.
> 
> 5) The Art of War is of course the classic Chinese book on military strategies, credited to Sun Tzu, written around 771-476 BCE. In this story it's specifically a book on how to combat the armies of different bending clans.
> 
> 6) Sanggung = Lady-in-waiting. Technically a high-ranking gungnyeo, but in my story sangchim are noble ladies from lesser families.

**Author's Note:**

> 1) A small detail Hwarang watchers might have noticed: I changed the queen's name. This is simply because she happened to have the same exact name as Blackpink's Jisoo; other than that she's pretty much the same character as in the show.
> 
> 2) Units of measurement: 1 cheok = c. 30 cm/1 foot; 1 ri = c. 390 m/0.24 miles
> 
> 3) On locations. Seorabeol, the capital of Silla, is nowadays the city of Gyeongju on the southeastern coast. Geochilsan-gun, where Jungkook has been raised in the story, is nowadays Busan, about 54 km/33.5 miles away. Geumjeonsan, which Jungkook also mentions, is a mountain in Busan.
> 
> 4) On social structure. Korea in pre-Confucian times was unusually woman-friendly for an East Asian culture, with multiple powerful queens and mostly female shamans. I have taken this to the extreme and made men and women more or less equal. Jingeol (aka "true bones", highest nobility except for royalty) are still at the top and outrageously privileged, though, so society as a whole is far from equal. In this universe, nobility = bending abilities.
> 
> 5) The crane dance Taehyung does when he's talking to Jungkook refers to [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxa2N8tsjyA). Super cool.


End file.
